CARMEL, Ind. – Conseco Inc., the parent of Banker’s Life and Casualty and Colonial Penn Life Insurance, on Friday posted a fourth-quarter profit, reversing last year’s loss, as sales rose 18 percent and the company lost less on investments than during the market downturn.
Conseco reported net income of $18.2 million, or 9 cents per share, [...]

NEW YORK – Mixed reports Monday on manufacturing, construction and personal income and spending made clear that the economy is enjoying modest growth even though the recovery remains fragile.
Manufacturing output expanded in February for a seventh straight month. Factory output has provided one of the few areas of strength for the economy. Still, the growth [...]

WASHINGTON – The government is giving homeowners another year to refinance their loans under a little-used program designed to help borrowers whose homes have plummeted in value.
The Obama administration effort, known as Home Affordable Refinance Program, had been scheduled to end on June 10 but will now run out on June 30, 2011, the Federal [...]

LOS ANGELES – Mary Feller’s family of three spends nearly $25,000 a year on health insurance premiums, which is more than they pay on their home’s mortgage in California’s Marin County.
“I think for the first time we’re really scared that we’re going to be without health insurance,” she said. Feller’s especially worried for her 26-year-old [...]

Despite delivering better than expected results last week, Sirius XM Radio (Nasdaq: SIRI – News) has gone on to close lower in the two trading sessions since its robust report. It opened lower still this morning.
No matter how much it accomplishes — from credit rating agency upgrades to generating gobs of free cash flow — [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp is expected to offer $3.8 billion of guaranteed securitizations backed by the residential mortgage assets of failed banks, market sources said on Tuesday.
The deals are expected to come in three separate transactions with Barclays Capital acting as sole manager for the sales, market sources said.
The [...]

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Keet on Tuesday called for phasing out the state’s tax on capital gains and a reduction in Arkansas’ income tax.
Keet, a Little Rock restaurant owner and former state legislator, made his candidacy official by filing paperwork at the state Capitol. Keet had announced Friday that he would [...]

When start-up company kaChing began accepting clients last year, its capital base was as small as its aspirations were grandiose. With just over $2 million in investments under management, the company was looking to challenge the $11 trillion U.S. mutual fund industry.
In doing so, kaChing’s founders made the rather bold claim that they had unveiled [...]

Half of Americans don’t have a retirement plan through their employer, and of those who do, few are saving enough to finance a retirement that will last several decades. To encourage more workers to plan for the future, President Obama announced in September several new federal initiatives to promote saving for retirement. Although employers had [...]

NEW YORK – Small business owners who compile their own income tax returns can find themselves falling into some common quicksand pits. The mistakes can be costly if they raise a company’s tax bill unnecessarily or subject it to penalties and interest in the future.
Some of the problems are mechanical in nature, such as not [...]