Shares of KKR Financial Holdings LLC rose today after Janney Montgomery Scott Securities analysts upgraded the real estate investment trust to "Market Outperform" from "Market Perform," saying the company's management has improved liquidity and it may restore its dividend soon.
Squeezed by rising bank failures and alarmed by its shrinking insurance fund, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has made it easier for private-equity investors to buy failed institutions, but one prominent analyst believes that the move could lead to even more shuttered banks.
A widow yesterday filed an arbitration claim with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc. against Ameriprise Financial Services Inc., alleging that a broker there failed to properly advise her aged husband on a variable annuity purchase and botched a beneficiary designation.
New U.S. home sales surged 9.6 percent in July, rising for the fourth straight month and beating expectations as the housing market marches steadily back from its historic downturn.
About 20% of the defined contribution plans administered by The Vanguard Group Inc. had adopted automatic enrollment by the end of last year, up from just 5% three years earlier, according to a recent study by Vanguard.
The idea of regulating the money market mutual funds as if they were banks could be detrimental to the $3.6 trillion industry, observers said today after former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker called for tighter reins on the funds.
Variable annuities, whose sales and asset levels slumped during the market downturn, showed signs of a comeback in the second quarter, according to data from the Insured Retirement Institute.
Home prices across most of the U.S. have started to rise from the depths of the housing slump, a pivotal trend that will help stabilize the broader economy, according to new figures released today.
Money market mutual funds would benefit from a federal program to guard against the risk of illiquidity in the markets, analysts yesterday at the first Money Fund Symposium in Providence, R.I.
Though rep recruitment is up at the John Hancock Financial Network since the firm decided to embrace the independent adviser channel, recruiters remain skeptical as to whether independents will continue to flock to the company.
It is not the first exchange traded fund to invest in Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, but the TIPS ETF launched today by Pacific Investment Management Co. of Newport Beach, Calif., may quickly become the fan favorite, according to a Morningstar anaylst.
The continued zero interest rate environment may be presenting a bigger challenge to money market mutual fund managers than rule changes <a href= http://tinyurl.com/lom2a4>proposed </a> by the Securities and Exchange Commission, several managers told participants today at the Money Fund Symposium in Providence, R.I.
Total individual-annuity sales tumbled during the second quarter as carriers' new business slowed and fixed-annuity interest rates fell, although sales for all fixed annuities fared better, according to data from LIMRA.
A new life insurance product from The Phoenix Cos. Inc. covers two lives under one policy, providing a death benefit for a spouse or business partner.
Although members of the insurance industry and some broker-dealer executives are butting heads with state regulators on tougher annuity regulation, financial advisers cheered the proposed use of Finra-esque suitability layers for all annuity sales.
The declining value of fixed-income portfolios in a climate of rising interest rates will hinder life insurers' performance over the next two years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission inserted themselves into the debate surrounding controversial, non-traditional exchange traded funds last week — a debate that could harm the entire ETF sector, according to some industry insiders.
Fidelity Investments of Boston spent $940,000 — both directly and via third-party firms — during the second quarter to lobby lawmakers in Washington on financial regulatory reform, retirement, taxes and other issues, according to recent filings with the House of Representatives' Office of the Clerk.
Inflation fears and attractive returns are driving demand for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities.
