Money Management Executive articles from April 2006

Money Management Executive archives from April 2006

Report: Dreyfus Executives Approved Market Timing.(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... In early 2002, executives at Dreyfus gave written permission for hedge fund Millennium Partners to engage in market timing in its mutual funds, according to The Wall Street Journal. The authorization, which conflicts with earlier statements...

Morningstar Introduces Fund Stewardship Grades.(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... Morningstar has rolled out mutual fund stewardship grades to underscore the fact that there's more for investors to consider when choosing a mutual fund than just past performance. This year's results are in, and one-fourth of domestic stock...

More Institutional Investors Pay for Research in Cash.(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... A number of large institutional investors are asking their brokerage houses to strip out the cost of research from trading commissions, Dow Jones reports. They are apparently following the lead of Fidelity Investments, which struck deals with...

SEC Promises Fixes for Exemption Process: Regulator Also Plans Cost/Benefit Analysis Review.
April 3, 2006... PHOENIX - After a sustained period of devoting resources to what its highest officers characterize as "frenetic rulemaking," the Securities and Exchange Commission is now prepared to conduct a comprehensive review of its exemptive application...

Pension Reform Warrants Funds' Interest: Beyond Business Opportunities, More Regulation Ahead.
April 3, 2006... PHOENIX - The nation's retirement system is in desperate need of an overhaul, and the mutual fund industry is likely to play a vital role in that renovation. That was the message that Ann L. Combs, assistant secretary of the Employee...

Survivor Bias' Skews Morningstar Data.
April 3, 2006... Investors who pick actively managed funds simply because data shows they beat the index might want to look a little more closely, according to a report released by a coalition of eight independent financial advisory firms known as the Zero...

State Street Plans 17 New Exchange-Traded Funds.
April 3, 2006... State Street Global Advisors has registered 17 new exchange-traded funds with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This will expand its current roster of 25 ETFs, 12 of which it has rolled out since November. State Street's recent push...

Fidelity Laptop Theft Boosts Software Encryption.(Brief article)
April 3, 2006... The recent theft of a Fidelity Investments laptop computer that contained confidential client information is perhaps the final straw for many companies and individuals, who in increasing numbers are seeking out precautions ranging from...

Executive Moves.(Matthew Witkos joins IXIS Asset Management Advisors Group)(James W. Hirschmann joins Legg Mason)(Enrique Chang joins American Century Investments )
April 3, 2006... IXIS Promotes Witkos to EVP, Head of Distribution IXIS Asset Management Advisors Group has named Matthew Witkos executive vice president for U.S. distribution, reporting to IXIS President and CEO John T. Hailer. In this position,...

Goodbye Pension, Hello Opportunity: As More Employers Shift to DC Plans, Some Funds May Benefit.
April 3, 2006... It used to be that after 40 years on the job, employees could count on two things: a gold watch and a good pension. But about 15 years ago, that began to change, as more and more employers abandoned pensions for defined contribution plans. ...

Mutual Funds Rubber-Stamp Excessive CEO Pay: Report.
April 3, 2006... At least five large mutual fund groups are being cited for too often voting in favor of excessive pay packages for America's chief executive officers. That's according to a report released last week studying the corporate proxy voting...

Funds Come up Short on Providing Adviser Tools.
April 3, 2006... Despite the critical bearing financial advisers have on mutual fund sales, fund firms as a whole are negligent when it comes to providing their advisers with business-building and practice management resources and tools. This is according to a...

Court Grants Investors Trial Against Mario Gabelli.
April 10, 2006... Sometimes, it appears, it's not so good to be the king. A New York Supreme Court in White Plains, N.Y., has ruled that two original investors in funds run by Mario Gabelli deserve a shot at recouping millions of dollars they say the mutual...

Soft-Dollar Dilemma Dogs Fund Industry: Unbundling Might Not Be the Solution, SEC Says.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
April 10, 2006... PHOENIX - Vanguard Group General Counsel Ari Gabinet likes to recall the time he was asked to speak on soft-dollar best practices at a recent conference. "I said, no," Gabinet said coyly, tongue firmly planted in cheek. What makes...

Funds Loaning Shares Ahead of Proxies?
April 10, 2006... A recent report suggested that mutual funds' tendency to vote with management on proxies may be part of the reason for ballooning executive pay. But another study by four U.S. and Canadian professors, this time on loaning shares ahead of...

More Funds Applying Fair Valuation.(mutual funds )
April 10, 2006... Fair valuation is alive and well and being more proactively and broadly practiced among mutual funds than ever before, according to the results of Deloitte & Touche's fifth annual survey of fair-value practices. Moreover, the increased use...

Principal Financial Offers Additional Adviser Tools.(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... Principal Financial Group is offering additional 401(k) marketing resources for financial advisers, including advice on: creating an effective sales and service process, developing a value proposition that clearly illustrates the adviser's...

Fidelity Investments Plans To Close $64B Contrafund.(Brief article)
April 10, 2006... Fidelity Investments will close its $63.8 billion Contrafund, currently its largest, to new investments as of April 28, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. The fund has delivered an average annual return of 10% over the past five...

Executive Moves.(Bill Higgins and Tom Smythe joins New York Life Investment Management)(Steven C. Pierson gets promoted at Putnam Lovell NBF Securities)(Phil Taylor gets promoted at Amvescap)
April 10, 2006... NYLIM Hires Higgins, Smythe as Vice Presidents New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) has hired Bill Higgins and Tom Smythe as vice presidents in the wealth strategies division of its MainStay Investments subsidiary. Higgins and...

Investors Increasingly Seek Dividend-Bearing Funds.
April 10, 2006... NEW YORK - A decade ago, investors snubbed dividends as a sign of companies incapable of growth, but since 2003, dividends have become a symbol of security and strength. And they're back in demand. How long that will last, though, may...

U.S. Firms Improve Corporate Governance Practices.
April 10, 2006... Companies are making a greater effort to increase the independence of their boards of directors, improve transparency and shareholder communications and tie executives' compensation to earnings. And it is safe to say that this trend to...

Merrill Attorney Donohue Named to Key SEC Post.(Securities and Exchange)(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Andrew "Buddy" Donohue, Merrill Lynch's global general counsel, as the director of its division of investment management, a position that has been filled by two interim managers since Paul Roye's...

A.B. Watley Charged for Late Trading, Timing.(National Ag Safety Database)(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... The NASD has filed a complaint against A.B. Watley Direct and its former representatives Robert Conway and Kenneth Ng for facilitating late trading and improper market timing of mutual funds on behalf of hedge fund clients. In addition, ABW...

Future of Indy Chairman Rule Unclear: Critics Seek Compromise; Proponents Say, No Way'.
April 17, 2006... A U.S. Court of Appeals has dropped the independent chairman rule back in the Securities and Exchange Commission's lap, but whether the legal circus surrounding the controversial mandate is nearing an end is anyone's guess. Equally...

More Funds Retain Independent Counsel.(mutual funds)
April 17, 2006... Drowned by the din of arguments surrounding rules for independent directors and chairmen of mutual fund boards is the increasingly important role of another independent party: attorneys. An important check in the balance between fund boards...

SEC's New Boston Chief Eyes Conflicts.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
April 17, 2006... Back at his alma mater, school officials introduced him as a man who "lives ethics on a daily basis." That fall day in 2004, during the height of the mutual fund market-timing and late-trading scandal, David Bergers told students crowded...

Ed Jones Takes in $172M From Preferred Funds'.(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... Although the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Edward Jones for $75 million in 2004 for not disclosing revenue-sharing agreements with a select group of mutual funds, the brokerage has continued the practice, and quite profitably. Last...

Investors Fail to Grasp Importance of Fund Fees.(Brief article)
April 17, 2006... Many investors do not realize that fund fees are important when making investment decisions, and instead are swayed by prospectus information even though they sense they are making a mistake, according to the Yale School of Management. ...

Executive Moves.
April 17, 2006... AIG's General Counsel Joins Pillsbury Winthrop Ernie Patrikis, who has worked as AIG's senior vice president and general counsel since 1999, will be leaving the firm at the end of the month to head the financial institutions regulatory...

Investors Demand More Than Performance: Customer Service Needs Rise, Slow Tightening of Expenses.
April 17, 2006... PHOENIX - If there's a single, unqualified maxim in mutual fund industry, it's that performance, above all else, sells. But to what extent it keeps on selling has emerged as a topic of some debate, and that discussion, in turn, reveals some...

Best Fund Websites Offer Commentary, Tools.
April 17, 2006... Mutual fund websites as a whole are well designed with solid content, according to the "Internet Standards Assessment Report" released by the Web Marketing Association of Boston. The report was based on an assessment by 200 judges of more than...

Time for Funds to Shake Up Wholesaler Compensation: Effective Firms Reward Net Sales, Solid Adviser Relationships.
April 17, 2006... By Steven Miyao Chief Executive Officer kasina Current wholesaler compensation models have changed little since the mid-to-late 1990s, a period of unprecedented growth for the mutual fund industry in which the emphasis was almost entirely...

Barclays to Reduce Fees On Sector Exchange Funds.(Barclays Global Investors )(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... Barclays Global Investors plans to cut fees on a number of its exchange-traded funds, effective May 1, regulatory filings show. The affected ETFs include those tied to indexes from Standard & Poor's. Among these are the iShares S&P Global...

Economists Evaluate Value of the Board : How Effective are They at Protecting Shareholders?
April 24, 2006... Mutual funds have significantly evolved in the past 65 years, but the corporate shell cast over them by the Investment Company Act of 1940 hasn't. Some economists argue it might be time to break out from that mold. At the core of the...

Industry Mired in Redemption Fee Rule: Amendments Easier on Funds, Tougher on Intermediaries.
April 24, 2006... Although the compliance deadline for the Securities and Exchange Commission's new redemption fee rule is now less than 180 days away, new feedback from industry consulting giant Deloitte & Touche reveals that mutual funds and their...

ETFs Seen Topping $1 Trillion by 2010.(exchange-traded funds )
April 24, 2006... Once the undersized new kids on the block, exchange-traded funds hit a growth spurt around 2003. Since then, the ETF market has doubled in size to $325 billion, and there's no sign of a slowdown. In fact, in a recent report, Financial Research...

Tax Drag Poised to Rise, Lipper Data Indicates.(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... The taxman is expected to dig deeper into the pockets of mutual fund investors in the coming years, according to new data from Lipper, a development that's sure to spur interest in tax-deferred savings vehicles. About half of the $8.3...

Vanguard Group Re-Vamps Financial Planning Services.(Brief article)
April 24, 2006... Vanguard Group last week announced a new one-stop shop for financial planning, which will be free to existing clients with $250,000 or more and to those who bring $100,000 of new assets to the company. Those who do not meet those requisites can...

Executive Moves.(Scott Welkis joins Stroock & Stroock & Lavan)(Thomas F. Eggers named as chief operating officer of Dreyfus Corp)(Glen Bashian joins Pyxis Mobile)
April 24, 2006... Welkis Joins Stroock's Financial Practice Group Scott Welkis has joined the financial practice group of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan as a partner. "Scott's in-depth knowledge of the corporate finance industry is a natural fit with the...

Activist Mutual Fund Takes on Corporate CEOs.
April 24, 2006... This proxy season there's another set of activists infiltrating corporate America's boardrooms and asking the tough questions of CEOs. Steven J. Milloy, a former Securities and Exchange Commission and financial industry attorney, and...

Multi-Affiliate Model a Tough Nut to Crack: Successful Firms Overcome Culture Clashes, Redundancies.
April 24, 2006... Effectively marrying the specialization of a boutique firm with the scale and profitability of a larger organization, multi-affiliated asset managers are taking on an increasingly visible role in the money management industry. With unique...

Managers Expect Economy, Profits to Continue to Grow.
April 24, 2006... Fund managers, economists and chief investment officers persist in believing that the global economy will remain in a mid- to late-cycle phase, enabling corporations and stock markets to continue to deliver strong profits and growth, Merrill...