News

A federal judge ruled that John Hancock Life Insurance Co. is not entitled to indemnification and contribution.

Wachovia Retirement Services has temporarily extended customer service call center hours to help participants “during this time of financial markets volatility.”

The Texas management consultant whose name has been attached to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on participants’ legal rights to pursue fiduciary breach claims has no regrets.

In a new report, Charles Schwab says there is a strong connection between a plan sponsor’s company match contribution formula and participant savings rates.

A New York-based commercial real-estate broker and a Pennsylvania broadcasting company are the two latest employers to cease their 401(k) matching contributions as part of belt-tightening efforts.

Direxion announced its entrance into the exchange-traded fund (ETF) space with the Direxion Shares 3x ETFs, slated to begin trading November 5.

Dow Jones Indexes announced the addition of a dozen new countries to its Islamic Market World Index.

Natixis Global Associates (NGA) announced the addition of the Vaughan Nelson Value Opportunity Fund (VNVAX) to the Natixis Funds lineup.

MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division announced plans to expand its participant communication and education beyond retirement-related topics.

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America adding more features to serve the Spanish-speaking workforce to its employee benefit enrollment services.

World equity markets registered their worst month in history as investors lost an estimated $5.79 trillion during October, Standard&Poor’s Index Services announced Monday.

Standard&Poor’s has launched the S&P /Citigroup International Treasury Bond Index Series.

CDM Retirement Consultants., a Towson, Maryland-based open architecture plan provider, is giving sponsors a break on fees.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has moved forward several fiduciary breach claims against Comcast Corporation for its handling of company stock retirement plan...

For all the talk of “hope″ and “change,″ this extended election cycle has offered little of either, IMHO.

Mutual fund assets worldwide decreased 0.7% to $24.64 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2008, according to Investment Company Institute (ICI) data.

Stock and bond funds experienced net outflows of $21.9 billion in September, according to data from the Financial Research Corporation (FRC).

The combined assets of the nation's mutual funds fell 8.3% or $959 billion to $10.6 trillion in September, according to Investment Company Institute (ICI) data.

Total managed accounts assets reached $1.85 trillion through the first half of 2008, according to the annual report “Cerulli Quantitative Update: Managed Accounts 2008.″

Research by the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) suggests freezing a defined benefit pension plan might not reduce costs.