Investment Instruments

The Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday finally reclaimed the ground it held before the carnage of the Great Recession bailouts, bank failures, layoffs by the million and a stock market panic that cut retirement savings in half.

Americans are cutting back on their non-essential spending, according to a new survey by investing company Scottrade, Inc. The survey found that saving for retirement is becoming important, so people are doing more comparison shopping, using coupons and cutting back on things like new clothes and entertainment.

A new survey by Charles Schwab shows that three-fourths of advisors believe that the number of advisors becoming registered investment advisors will continue to increase, and more than half say they find the idea of becoming an RIA appealing.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. released its 2010 pension insurance data tables. The tables offer information on statistical trends related to defined benefit retirement plans in the private sector.

Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. announced several enhancements to its fund offerings, including the addition of new retail mutual funds.

Bank of America has informed its employees that it will be freezing its existing pension plans in July and swapping in increases to company 401(k) plans instead, CNNMoney reports.

Towers Watson's research indicates embattled employees will take pay cuts to help guarantee their retirement benefits and lower their long-term health care costs.

Fidelity Investments reported strong growth in 2011 in defined contribution sales commitments in the small- to mid-market, representing assets of $6.6 billion. This was a 40 percent increase over the previous year.