What investment options should be offered for 401(k) and 403(b) plans?
When building an investment option lineup for a 401(K) or 403(b) plan, what is an optimal choice to have from a best practices point of view? Per our recommendation, it should broadly follow the selection process below: Offering 10 to 16 core funds which cover broad asset class exposures like U.S. Equities (Large, Mid and […]
Chinese Yuan 12 month Forward
Official data released on Tuesday showed China’s foreign exchange reserves jumping by $129 billion in the first quarter, to an all-time high of $3.95 trillion. The Chinese build reserves by intervening to weaken the Yuan against the US dollar. US Treasury officials responded by verbally reprimanding the Chinese about free market forces, although they […]
Employers Ramping Up Retirement Plan Features, Advisory Services
Employers are enhancing their retirement plans and increasing access to professional investment advice in an attempt to bolster employee retirement readiness. A new study by Aon Hewitt, which polled more than 400 plan sponsors serving 10 million plan participants, revealed a number of initiatives being taken to strengthen employee ability to achieve greater financial security […]
Reasons ETFs are inexpensive
The ETF industry is growing quickly, and ETF.com projects the $1.7 trillion market of U.S.-listed exchange-traded funds will grow exponentially in the next several years, thanks to increasing interest among both retail and institutional investors. Why? Because ETFs have many inherent traits that allow them to stand out relative to competing mutual funds, and cost […]
PowerShares QQQ ETF Celebrates its 15 Year Anniversary
Invesco PowerShares is proud to celebrate the 15-year anniversary of the PowerShares QQQ™ Portfolio (ticker: QQQ). QQQ tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index®, which is comprised of the 100 largest, most innovative domestic and international non-financial companies listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market. PowerShares QQQ invests in some of the world’s most revolutionary companies across the industry […]
What are the Fiduciary Rules?
Every plan must have a fiduciary(s) responsible for the operation of the plan. A fiduciary can be identified as a person or as an office, such as a company’s board of directors. Many plans have several fiduciaries, each being responsible for a different aspect of the plan’s management. Fiduciaries can be held liable if they […]
Volatility 101: The basics of options trading
Options can be a wonderful tool to help an investor with portfolio hedging, to create extra income, even to speculate on a market trend. But before you can trade options on the stock price of Apple or Tesla, you have to understand the basics of volatility. To do that, we’re going to break down volatility […]
Americans Continue to Face Saving Challenges, Survey Finds
According to a survey released last month by America Saves and the American Savings Education Council (ASEC), just 35% of Americans feel they are making good or excellent progress in saving money. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say they’re making fair or no progress. However, nearly 7 out of 10 (68%) say they are spending less than […]
What is Smart Beta?
There has been a lot of talk recently about smart beta —and some of you may be wondering what it is. First, let’s take a quick look at what defines “beta.” Beta is a measurement of the volatility of an investment compared to the market. An investment with a beta of 1 is, in theory, delivering the same volatility […]
Imagining a world without ETFs
Exchange traded funds hit the scene in 1993 and have since revolutionized the investing world. The low cost and transparent structure of ETFs has resonated well with investors, as the industry as a whole has accumulated more than $1.5 trillion in total assets. We thought it would be fun to imagine a world where ETFs […]
