Money Management Executive articles from April 2007

Money Management Executive archives from April 2007

Utah Regulators Apologize For Unfair Charges Against First Western.(advisors Brian G. Kasteler and David A. Russon )(Brief article)
April 2, 2007... Regulators in Utah have dropped charges of fraud and apologized for dinging the reputation of two First Western Advisors brokers, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The Utah Securities Division said First Western brokers Brian G. Kasteler...

XBRL, 12b-1 Fees Among SEC Priorities.
April 2, 2007... PALM DESERT, Calif.-Interactive data, books and recordkeeping requirements and 12b-1 fees were a few of the key issues repeatedly discussed at the Investment Company Institute's "Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference" here last...

Donohue's Focus: Modernizing Funds.
April 2, 2007... PALM DESERT, Calif.-Modernizing fund rules, remembering fundamental basics of serving investors, keeping a watchful eye on globalization of the fund industry and facing risky practices head-on were key points of Andrew Donohue's keynote speech...

Funds Move On to 22c-2 Data Analysis.
April 2, 2007... The April 16 deadline for fund companies and their intermediaries to ink information-sharing agreements in compliance with Rule 22c-2 has set off a flurry of negotiations and shifted attention to the next component of the rule: data analysis....

SEC Expected to Fold on Independent Chairman Rule.
April 2, 2007... The comment period for the independent directors rule ended a month ago, and as the Securities and Exchange Commis-sion nears a vote on the measure, speculation is increasing that it will bend to the industry's fierce opposition to having fund...

Week in Review.
April 2, 2007... Beacon Rock Settles Timing Case for $475K Hedge fund Beacon Rock Capital has agreed to pay $475,000 to settle charges that it market timed mutual funds between 1999 and 2003. It is the first criminal case against a hedge fund for market...

Socially Responsible Investing No Longer a Niche.
April 2, 2007... Just as the Oscar buzz surrounding Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" pushed discussions about global warming out of academia and into living rooms across the country, environmental awareness and a solid track record have helped...

Even Affluent Don't Fully Understand Alternative Investments.
April 2, 2007... Most alternative investment products are neither well-understood nor on the shopping lists of affluent investors with $500,000 or more investable assets. Moreover, fewer than one-third discuss including alternative investments in their...

SEC Refuses to Share Documents with Chamber.
April 9, 2007... Although the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed the findings of two cost/benefit studies it commissioned on the proposed independent directors rule late last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sought access to the complete report,...

SEC: Don't Bog Directors Down.
April 9, 2007... PALM DESERT, Calif.-Fund boards have a duty to shareholders to act as fiduciaries, but how much responsibility should fund directors have, and are they overloaded? Experts raised the question at the Investment Company Institute's "Mutual...

Boomers Go on Spending Bender: Need Money Now' Lifestyle Drives Push for New Products.
April 9, 2007... Forget spending retirement in a rocking chair on the front porch. Affluent recent retirees and Baby Boomers approaching retirement are more likely to be traveling the world than watching it go by, according to a recent report by the U.S....

Funds Must Get Technologically With it': Even Google Could One Day Compete for Investors.
April 9, 2007... PALM DESERT, Calif.-Technology can be used as a leverage to help mutual fund firms better understand and reach their clients, agreed panelists at the Investment Company Institute's, "Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference" here last...

Labor Group Takes Notice Of Funds' Proxy Votes.
April 9, 2007... It's been three years since the Securities and Exchange Commission began requiring funds to annually disclose their proxy voting records. When the measure was passed, many dismissed it as a mere administrative nuisance, reasoning that even if...

Week in Review.
April 9, 2007... Kansas Denies Ex-Waddell Chief $1.2M Tax Refund A judge has ruled that Keith Tucker, the former chief executive officer of Waddell & Reed, was, indeed, a resident of Kansas City between 1999 and 2003, not Texas, and, Kansas, that he must...

Executive Moves.
April 9, 2007... MassMutual Merging Annuity, Income Units, With Dickey at the Helm MassMutual merged its annuity and income management divisions to better serve the growing retirement income market. Drew Dickey, senior vice president for retirement...

BISYS Sale Could Be Nearing Hedge Fund Manager Vies for Board Seat.
April 9, 2007... Amid speculation that a sale of all or parts of financial servicing company BISYS Group of Roseland, N.J., are in the works, one hedge fund manager, Ahmet Okumus, president of Okumus Capital of New York, has been buying up shares of the firm...

Small Banks Committed to Asset Management.
April 9, 2007... While some small banks have abandoned asset management or turned to third-party outsourcers, others are entering or remaining in the business. Mutual Federal Savings Bank, a unit of MutualFirst Financial of Muncie, Ind., has just acquired...

Skippers Favor Companies With University Ties.(investment behavior )
April 16, 2007... Because managers of mutual funds and corporate executives who attended the same university frequently run in the same social circles or maintain their friendships well past graduation, the corporate executives tend to share key information...

401(k) Plans Need to be Straight Shooters Effective: 401(k) Communications Means Being Realistic.
April 16, 2007... BOSTON-Retirement isn't always Adirondack chairs and seaside views, even for employees who do participate in company-sponsored defined contribution plans. Not even auto enrollment at 6% with a full company match can solve the retirement crisis....

Researchers: Banish the Boards Say Fund Directors Boost Expenses, Hamstring Competition.
April 16, 2007... The question may not be how independent mutual fund boards should be, but whether investors would be better off without fund boards altogether. That's because mutual fund boards, which bear the responsibility of overseeing and setting fund...

5.1% Earnings for 1Q07 Disappoint Analysts Initially Projected S&P 500 to Gain 9.2%.
April 16, 2007... Mutual fund analysts may have set their hopes too high for the first quarter of 2007, as company earnings didn't reach the levels they had hoped, experts said during Lipper's first quarter fund performance review and outlook webcast last week....

Editor's Desk: Mutual Funds' Interest in Hedge Funds May be Due To More Than Performance.
April 16, 2007... With the stratospheric salaries that hedge fund managers are earning these days, there may be more to mutual fund managers' interest in employing hedge fund strategies than performance. Sure, they claim they're turning to riskier tactics to...

Executive Moves.(Transamerica Capital hires Michael Petko)(John Hancock hires Michael Zargaj)(Parnassus Investments taps Ben Allen)
April 16, 2007... Petko to Head Fund Sales For Transamerica Capital Transamerica Capital has hired Michael Petko as executive vice president, national sales manager for the Transamerica IDEX Mutual Funds. "Mike brings energy and passion to Transamerica...

Retirement: Only 66% of Workers Saving for Retirement.
April 16, 2007... Despite the warnings and the realization that many Americans know they need to save for retirement, 34% of workers are not doing anything about it, according to the 17th annual "Retirement Confidence Survey" by the Employee Benefit Research...

Mutual Funds: Mutual Fund Store to Expand, H&R Block-Style.
April 16, 2007... The Mutual Fund Store of Overland Park, Kan., the fast-growing independent fee-based financial planning franchised business, is taking a page from successful tax office franchisor H&R Block's playbook-literally. Last week it hired as its...

Week in Review.(Securities and Exchange Commission to force mutual funds to disclose fees and performance)(hedge funds in Cayman Islands)(Evergreen Security investors to recover money)
April 16, 2007... SEC May Require Funds to Disclose Fees in Dollars The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering forcing mutual funds to disclose fees and performance as simple numbers, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox told the Los Angeles Times. ...

Courts to Reject More Excessive Fee' Cases.(Brief article)
April 23, 2007... NEW YORK-Fund companies can anticipate fewer lawsuits from shareholders over what they claim are excessive fees, according to panelists at the Practising Law Institute's "Investment Management Institute 2007" here. A recent case cemented...

How to Ace an SEC Exam: 07 Priorities.
April 23, 2007... NEW YORK-Soft dollars stay at the top of the "to do" list for examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2007, said Gene A. Gohlke, associate director of the SEC's Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. The fund...

Fast Times, Slow Systems: Best Execution Means Better Technology.
April 23, 2007... NEW YORK-Portfolio managers can buy all the algorithms they want, but ensuring best trade execution starts with investing in an order management system sophisticated enough to handle them, according to panelists at Financial Markets World's...

Couples at Odds on Retirement Outlook: Expect to Retire at Different Ages, on Different Wages.(Survey)
April 23, 2007... The key to a successful marriage is communication, and planning for retirement is no exception. As it turns out, this is yet another bone of contention between husbands and wives. More than 30% of 500 couples born between 1937 and 1964 that...

SEC's Commitment to Focus on Disclosure, Fees An Encouraging Sign.
April 23, 2007... They may be late to the party, but they seem to be making up for lost time. Since Christopher Cox became the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, his most important contribution to mutual fund shareholders has probably been...

Week in Review.(investment companies are facing lawsuits by investors)
April 23, 2007... Investors Backlash Against 401(k)s Via Class-Actions Investors are increasingly bringing dramatically worded lawsuits against 401(k) sponsors and fiduciaries for what they allege are shady fee practices, Mondaq reports. The inspiration for...

Executive Moves.(Ron Speaker to leave Janus Capital Group Inc.)(appointment of Cynthia L. Egan at T. Rowe Price Group Inc.)(Dale S. Gillette joins Satuit Technologies )
April 23, 2007... Expert Bond Guru Speaker Leaving Janus Capital Ron Speaker, who was with Janus Capital for two decades and has run the $757 million Janus Flexible Bond Fund since 1992, is leaving the firm in June. At that point, Gibson Smith and Darrell...

Fund Firms Fall Short on Helping Advisers Reach Women.
April 23, 2007... While a few mutual fund companies are trying to appeal to women investors, the majority of companies fall short when equipping advisers with specific women-related resources, according to a recent report, "Women and Investing: Shifting the...

ETFs Flourish as Boundaries are Pushed.(Exchange-Traded Funds)(XShares new debut products )(Market overview)
April 23, 2007... There is positively no shortage of exchange-traded funds to be had these days, and more inventive and narrowly focused products are emerging or in the wings. Since the start of 2007, a flood of 109 new ETFs have been registered with the...

DOL Accepting Ideas on 401(k) Fee Disclosure.
April 30, 2007... The Bush administration pledged last week to improve fee disclosure in 401(k)s. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration is now accepting ideas on how to do so from the public and the investment management industry....

Greenspan Tells Boomers to Get Ready': Warns of Severe Social Security, Medicare Shortfalls.
April 30, 2007... NEW YORK-When Alan Greenspan speaks, markets move and people listen. Usually. But it's unclear if even the former Federal Reserve chairman can get Baby Boomers' attention when it comes to preparing financially for life after work. "At...

Target-Date Funds Gaining More Favor.
April 30, 2007... CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Target-date funds will continue to increase in popularity due to their simplicity, automatic rebalancing and diversification, according to panelists at Financial Research Associates' "Target Date Lifecycle Funds" conference...

State Muni Tax Cases Threaten Funds.
April 30, 2007... A Kentucky lawsuit decided in early 2006, and a similar tax case now being tried in North Carolina, could spell the demise of single-state municipal bond funds as we know them. Moreover, if these cases are successful in their bids to...

New Luxury Indexes Could Be Basis for Original ETFs.(exchange-traded funds)
April 30, 2007... In their zeal to cash in on the latest investment craze, fund companies all too often have displayed a lack of originality and bad timing when launching new funds. Since exchange-traded funds have taken all of the major indexes, those that have...

Week in Review.
April 30, 2007... Fidelity's New Campaign Focuses on Regular People Fidelity Investments is running three new TV ads that depict people talking about their finances, rather that former Beatle Paul McCartney. One spot features a couple where the husband talks...

BlogWatch.(falling market for hedge funds )
April 30, 2007... Hedge Funds Losing Luster Among Ultra-Wealthy The New York Times Dealbook (http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com) is heavy on hedge funds lately. The blog covers a Bloomberg story that talks about how hedge funds seem to have fallen out of...

Executive Moves.
April 30, 2007... Fidelity Shakes Up Exec Ranks as Reynolds Retires Edward "Ned" Johnson, chairman of Fidelity Investments, will assume more responsibilities at the firm upon the retirement of Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Robert Reynolds....

Gloom And Doom Don't Sell: Boomers Seek Hope, Freedom, Inspiration.
April 30, 2007... NEW YORK-No matter what kind of gloom-and-doom statistics financial companies compile about unprepared Baby Boomers' retirement, those that want to sell product should ditch the fire-and-brimstone talk. What Boomers really want to hear is that...

SEC to Heighten Insider-Trading Scrutiny of Hedge Funds: Anti-Fraud, Accredited Investors Also High on List.
April 30, 2007... NEW YORK-Hedge funds can't run or hide from regulators, and the accredited investor, anti-fraud and insider trading rules will be three of the key issues the Securities and Exchange Commission will focus on this year, Bruce Karpati, assistant...