The proverbial lump of coal is what naughty boys and girls get in their Christmas stockings. But investors who have placed coal stocks in their portfolios over the last year or two have found a gift that keeps on giving. Coal stocks soared by 125...

When the mutual fund scandals broke in September 2003, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and other politicians described the misdeeds in black-and-white terms. According to the original story line, the villains were mainly mutual funds who...

Ever since socially responsible investing began as a protest against the Vietnam War and as a lever to force U.S. multinationals to stop doing business in South Africa the concept has been viewed with suspicion in most parts of the investment...

In the 1980s, Charles Schwab changed the way investors shop for funds, introducing the supermarket. The innovation's main attraction was its ease of use. Investors could scan through dozens of fund choices and select the ones they liked best...

It's among the thorniest of issues in the investment world: At what point does an underperforming style of investment turn appealing? The style of the moment on this account most certainly is large-cap growth. It has been, bar none, the worst...

Many art collectors try to avoid paying sales tax, capital gains and, ultimately, estate taxes. They craftily build collections below the radar by paying cash, using money orders, and shipping art to states that don't collect sales tax. Many also...

Plenty of clients detest bond mutual funds, their most common gripe: Why own these never-maturing bonds when the Fed is trying to nudge up interest rates? When interest rates rise, bond funds sink, so in times like these many investors feel more...

American Funds Distributors is the fund company that said no. While in the past few years many funds sued by regulators have been quick to settle, American, the second-largest fund family in the U.S. with $650 billion in assets is fighting back...

Benjamin Franklin once said, Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. My how tastes change. Today, Ben might substitute Absolut Raspberri or shiraz for beer. Booze and wine have replaced ordinary suds as the king of cool. Sure...

Under departing Chairman William Donaldson, the SEC generated plenty of noisy headlines. But one of the Commission's most decisive actions received little attention; it recently eliminated a class of investments: stable value mutual funds. Stable...