Hard times are on the horizon for insurers as commercial mortgage exposure haunts carriers and capital levels shrink, according to Fitch.
Prices of existing single-family homes tumbled 18.2% on average in the fourth quarter of 2008, marking the biggest year-over-year price decline in 21 years
OppenheimerFunds Inc. has elected to shutter its OFI Tremont Core Strategies Hedge Fund and start returning the fund's roughly $100 million in assets to clients.
When combing through new investment ideas, advisers would be wise not to ignore mutual funds and separate-account strategies at the bottom of the heap.
Insurers have begun bidding for American Life Insurance Co., the life insurance unit of American International Group Inc.
Fidelity Investments, the world’s biggest mutual fund company, reported today that its operating income dropped 18% last year.
Commercial real estate prices plunged 14.9% on average in December from the same month a year ago.
Blue-chip equities are less attractive than bonds thanks to plunging dividends, according to analysis published today by Bloomberg.
Cohen & Steers Inc. has snagged David Edlin from AllianceBernstein Investments Inc. to be its new national sales manager, the company announced this morning.
Janus Capital Group Inc. of Denver saw its ratings drop a notch to junk status today courtesy of Standard & Poor’s of New York.
The SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) exchange traded fund has surpassed $30 billion in assets, making it the second-largest ETF by assets in the world.
Investors' concerns about negative market returns are likely to create a greater demand for guaranteed products such as variable annuities, but the downturn in the markets has changed the insurers' cost of managing the hedging risk of VAs.
Advisers may complain about variable annuities, but most still endorse the product.
As this year's returning chairman of the NAIC's Life Insurance and Annuities (A) Committee, Eric R. Dinallo's priorities are making sure that consumers are protected while helping carriers steer a course through choppy economic waters.
The tide has finally turned for prime money market mutual funds.
Mutual fund executives probably won't be dancing in the street over reports of modest inflows into stock mutual funds in January.
Seeking to assess the strength of the insurance carriers they do business with, many smaller independent broker-dealers — flummoxed by the insurers' opaque balance sheets and arcane accounting practices — are relying on a time-tested tool: their own observations.
Big-name mutual fund companies leery of jumping into exchange traded funds have finally received the signal that they need to make a major push into that arena.
The Iowa insurance commissioner has eased accounting rules for 11 insurers based in the state, allowing them to polish up their balance sheets.
Concerned about liability related to hedge funds, Schwab is telling registered investment advisers that it will no longer accept custody of alternative assets.
