WASHINGTON — The Department of Labor has put the issue of enhanced 401(k) fee disclosure on its agenda, a move that could take some of the wind out of the sails of a legislative threat.
It’s unlikely that the crisis in the subprime-mortgage market is going unnoticed by some prominent mutual fund managers.
As exchange traded funds proliferate, ETF producers are getting more aggressive when it comes to pitching product.
As indexes developed specifically for exchange traded funds proliferate, so do concerns about potential conflicts of interest that may exist when index providers reach for extra performance.
The number of companies that rate exchange traded funds — and the methods they use to rate them — is growing.
Buoyed by the firm’s popularity with financial advisers, net inflows at American Funds have dwarfed its competitors’ over the past five years.
Fidelity Investments’ plan to subject more of its adviser-sold mutual funds to performance-fee adjustments got a chilly response last week from some financial advisers who said such incentives could encourage funds to take on too much risk.
PHILADELPHIA — WisdomTree Investments Inc. of New York is betting that when it comes to fundamental indexing — indexes weighted not by market capitalization but by other factors — the simpler, the better.
The Vanguard Group Inc., which long has espoused the virtues of buy-and-hold investing, is encouraging hedge funds — which rank among the most frenetic of investors — to invest in its exchange traded funds.
Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., an asset management firm started by two World War I pilots, is winning its turnaround battle so far, but some observers say that the upshot ultimately will be to fix it or sell it.
BOSTON — Although it is too early to tell whether their winning streaks will continue, Fidelity Magellan Fund and Janus Worldwide Fund — two large mutual funds that have struggled to beat their benchmarks of late — are off to decent starts in 2007.
PHILADELPHIA — Real estate investment trusts have outperformed the broad market for seven years, so it isn’t surprising that exchange traded fund providers want in on the action.
The practice of borrowing company stock to manipulate the outcome of company votes has piqued the interest of the Securities and Exchange Commission and has rekindled a debate over stock lending.
Baby boomers who are retiring and rolling over their 401(k) money favor mutual fund wrap programs even though many are wealthy enough to qualify for separately managed accounts, industry observers say.
PHILADELPHIA — When it comes to new indexes, those that eschew weightings based on market capitalization are all the rage.
BOSTON — Just because the Enron Corp. and market-timing scandals have led to greater disclosure requirements doesn’t mean that some mutual fund companies aren’t still burying some doozies in their regulatory filings, according to Russel Kinnel, director of mutual fund research for Morningstar Inc.
IXIS Asset Management Distributors LP, which saw its main sales channel dry up in 2000, has stemmed the tide of outflows and now ranks among the nation’s 10 best-selling mutual fund firms.
As the Department of Labor puts pressure on advisers to make 401(k) fees more transparent, some financial advisers are refunding fees to participants that they are being paid from mutual fund companies.
PHILADELPHIA — The successful launch of the closed-end Alpine Total Dynamic Dividend Fund — its initial public offering raised $4.04 billion last month, making it the largest closed-end-fund IPO ever — may signal a resurgence in closed-end funds, industry experts say.
BOSTON — Franklin Resources Inc., the nation’s fourth-largest mutual fund company, boosted its head count by 229 workers last quarter, with more than 90% of that growth coming from India, where it opened a new facility last month.
