Subject:
custodians A Custodian bank, or simply custodian, is a financial institution responsible for safeguarding a firm’s or individual’s financial assets. The role of a custodian in such a case would be the following: to hold in safekeeping assets such as equities and bonds, arrange settlement of any purchases and sales of such securities, collect information on and income from such assets (dividends in the case of equities and coupons in the case of bonds), provide information on the underlying companies and their annual general meetings, manage cash transactions, perform foreign exchange transactions where required and provide regular reporting on all their activities to their clients. Custodian banks are often referred to as global custodians if they hold assets for their clients in multiple jurisdictions around the world, using their own local branches or other local custodian banks in each market to hold accounts for their underlying clients. Assets held in such a manner are typically owned by pension funds. (Wikipedia Jan 2010)
Retirement saving 2004
By John Schroy, on February 22nd, 2006 | 
American households, as of December 2004, had accumulated $3,475.1 billion in tax-deferred Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), according to the Federal Reserve Flow of Funds Accounts.
The largest portion of these savings were held as “self-directed accounts”, in which a wide diversity of investment is permissible.
Over the four years, 1999 to 2002, investors added $837.2 billion to their IRAs, which, added to the $118 billion in decline in value over the period, means that the market crash cost IRA savers about $955 billion.
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