David Hefty, chief of Cornerstone Wealth Management, says the benchmark Dow Jones industrial average could tumble below 5, 000.

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"Seventy percent of the profits related to these annuity programs come from the fixed account, " says Edward Siedle, who runs Benchmark Financial Services and investigates money-management abuses.

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Six months of intensive work, endless cold calls to find clients, and a high all-or-nothing benchmark of client money to get under management by the end of the program.

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Overall, double-digit gains across domestic and global equity benchmark indices did not translate equally into active management, as most active managers in most categories underperformed.

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Higher costs are always incurred with active management, whether the fund outperforms its benchmark or not.

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"The SEC should never have allowed the ICI to claim it represents the interests of mutual fund investors, because it's a blatant falsehood, " says Edward Siedle of Benchmark Financial Services, a firm that investigates money management wrongdoing.

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Benchmark returns, or worse after fees, at active management prices.

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Andreas Utermann, a director at Mercury Asset Management, thinks a euro index will underperform a broader, pan-European benchmark and should therefore not be marketed as a better alternative to clients.

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"They've taken Singapore Airlines as a benchmark for service and British Airways as a benchmark of their financial acumen, " says Fraser Teasdale, head of a Miami airline-management firm.

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