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News

With a 48% Return, Bill Miller Got Game

The Legg Mason Opportunity Trust Fund is the leading U.S. stock fund in the second quarter.

‘Greed Will Come Again’: Bill Gross

But fear and frugality will dominate consumer behavior for at least a generation, he adds.

Standard & Poor's Says Recession to End This Year

And the firm’s chief investment strategist projects GDP growth of 1.3% in 2010.

Rydex Advisor Confidence Index Rose 4% in June

It’s the second consecutive monthly increase since October 2007.

Hedge Funds on Track to Return 6%+ in 2Q

But many investors, particularly institutional investors, are still waiting for reforms before committing new money.

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Articles

Eliminating Money Funds' $1 NAV Causes Concern

While the financial services industry largely embraced most of the Obama administration's financial services overhaul, the idea of removing money funds' $1 net asset value is causing widespread concern in the mutual fund industry. 'If you float the value of a money fund, you've essentially destroyed the product,' said Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens. 'We're going to explain clearly why we believe a fluctuating [NAV] is a very bad idea.'

Target-Date Fund Hearing Focuses on Disclosure

At the hearing on target-date funds that the Department of Labor and the Securities and Exchange Commission held in Washington last Thursday, the focus was on better disclosure of holdings. Even though the makeup and glidepaths of target-date funds vary so considerably, as proven by the range of minus 7% to minus 41% that 2010 target-date funds delivered in 2008, fund executives resisted government-mandated caps on holdings.

FINRA Fines Seven Bond B/Ds for Violations

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined seven firms a total of $184,500, including $80,000 for Tulsa-based BOSC Inc., for failing to timely or accurately report municipal securities, unfairly pricing bonds, as well as other muni and non-muni rule violations. FINRA announced the sanctions in monthly disciplinary actions last week. Besides BOSC, it fined Charles Schwab $30,000, Stoever, Glass & Co. $20,000, Piper Jaffray & Co. $17,500, Finance 500 Inc. $15,000, Bonddesk Trading LLC $12,000, and Country Club Financial Services Inc. $10,000.

Sponsors Continue to Add Many Features to 401(k)s

Although there have been reports of one-third of employers cutting back on or eliminating 401(k) matches, for the most part, they have continued to add other features to the plans to increase participation and investment rates, Charles Schwab found. And that has helped most workers stay the retirement savings course. In fact, of the plans that Schwab manages, participation increased in 2008 to 77%, up from 73% from the year before. Plans with between 500 and 1,000 participants displayed the highest participation rate (88%). A majority of employers, 70%, continued to offer a 401(k) match in 2008, down from 78% in 2007. Of those that did offer a match, only 8% reduced it.

Many Advisers Loathe to Discuss Damage

A recent cartoon in The New Yorker surely sums up many retirement investors' feelings toward their financial advisers: It depicts them being sacrificed to a volcano. There is no getting around the fact that it is an intimidating time to be a financial adviser. Clients' retirement portfolios got slammed last year, and many investors are understandably furious. But mutual fund and brokerage executives say too many advisers are responding by doing the exact wrong thing: avoiding their clients.

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