Compliance April 17, 2013

DOL Webcast Aims to Educate Younger Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is co-sponsoring a webcast to provide financial education for younger workers and college seniors.
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“Start Early to Take Charge of Your Financial Future” will provide information about and tools for personal financial planning, including budgeting, managing debt from student loans and credit cards, saving and investing for short and long-term goals, investing and making the most of employer-sponsored retirement and health benefits.   

The DOL is co-sponsoring the webcast with the Department of Education and the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards.  

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The webcast is April 30 at 3 p.m. EDT.  

Registration is here.

The Markets April 17, 2013

Taxable-Bond Funds Top Asset Gatherers

In the first quarter of 2013, investors added $184.3 billion to long-term open-end mutual funds while redeeming $92.8 billion from money market funds, according to Morningstar.
Reported by

For the 19th consecutive month, taxable-bond funds topped all asset classes with inflows of $19.3 billion in March, bringing their inflows for the quarter to $69.1 billion.

Additional highlights from Morningstar’s report include: 

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  • U.S.-stock funds gathered inflows of $21.5 billion in the first three months of the year, marking the first positive quarter for equities since the beginning of 2011 and the best quarter since 2004;
  • Investors continue to embrace international-stock funds, which took in $12.1 billion in March and $47.0 billion for the quarter;
  • Relative to total assets, alternative and commodities funds had strong March inflows, collecting $2.0 billion and $1.4 billion, respectively;
  • Alternatives saw inflows of $9.2 billion this quarter, the best three months on record for the asset class; and
  • Vanguard and PIMCO continue to capture the vast majority of industry inflows, while American Funds experienced redemptions in March after inflows in January and February.

The complete report is available here.

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