This article reports that as many as five colleges or charitable foundations whose endowments have suffered significant investment losses or were unable to access money in their accounts in recent months are considering legal action against their brokers or investment managers, alleging misrepresentation of risk or mismanagement. Jacob H.…

During this period of continued economic uncertainty, higher-education institutions are facing a variety of challenges that by now are very familiar to governing boards and institutional leaders, including poor investment returns, reduced liquidity, limited choices in how they structure debt issues, and threats to flexibility in tuition pricing.…

The New York state attorney general's office is close to announcing a settlement with the 525,000-member New York State United Teachers over a relationship between the union and ING Group, a large financial-services company based in the Netherlands. In that arrangement, the union's Member Benefits division--a separate trust that provides…

Information about tax-sheltered annuity plans and a questionnaire to assist in the evaluation of companies that provide a fixed annuity. (Author/MLF)

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) and College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF), the largest pension system in the country, has lost its tax exemption, a change that has both created problems and opened doors to new ventures. TIAA-CREF is now seeking opportunities to manage state tuition-savings plans, and has also established six…

Competition for savings dollars has led to free gift bonus offers as incentive for new deposits. A concise new formula presented here permits calculation of the total yield using an inexpensive minicomputer. Yield is expressed in terms of interest rate, effective discount value of gift bonus, and period of deposit. (Author/MA)

This book offers investment strategies for participants in the primary retirement organization for universities and nonprofit organizations, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). The investment principles outlined also apply to retirement funds offered by other investment companies. The book's scope…

A well-designed investment program can help administrators get the most out of public dollars and other available resources. (Author)

Discusses print and World Wide Web resources on personal finance, investments, and other business information and provides an annotated bibliography of investment and the stock market sites: meta sites, stock quotes, market news, data and analysis, brokerage firms, and sites for beginning investors. Includes addresses. (PEN)

Complexities in managing TIAA-CREF contracts are reviewed. Attention is directed toward participation, period considerations, selection of retirement age, retirement income transition, estate considerations and beneficiaries, voluntary additional contributions, and supplemental retirement annuity contracts. (LBH)

Describes how the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, traditionally conservative in its investments, is taking a riskier approach in the hope of increasing returns; moves include consideration of a private financial services spinoff. (EV)

This booklet is part of a series of monographs focusing on conflicts of interest in different sectors of the financial industry. This particular study examines a number of conflict-of-interest problems related to the management of public pension funds. In his discussion, the author analyzes a variety of related problems, such as the selection of…

Many people are investing these days, but many librarians, especially non-business librarians, are uncomfortable helping patrons with questions on the subject. This reference guide gives librarians the knowledge and confidence to assist patrons in identifying the correct information in a critical but little understood investment area--the bond…

the Common Fund is a nonprofit corporation formed to enable colleges, universities, and independent schools to join together in obtaining professional management of their endowments and other long-term investment funds. (Author)

An officer of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund responds to an article criticizing the funds' pension policy issues and performance. (MSE)