Money Management Executive articles from August 2004

Money Management Executive archives from August 2004

Canada Expected to Bring Market-Timing Charges.(Ontario Securities Commission, mutual fund companies)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... The Ontario Securities Commission is planning to bring market-timing charges against a number of mutual fund companies in Canada within the next few weeks, it was reported last week. But the charges are likely to be focused on market-timing...

Annuity Bill Seeks $20k in Annual Income Tax Exclusions.(Retirement Security for Life Act of 2004)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... A new bill proposed in the House would exempt up to $20,000 in annuity income from federal taxation. The Retirement Security for Life Act of 2004 proposes that 50% of annuity income, up to $20,000 annually, be free of taxes, amounting to...

Fidelity Brokerage Assets Soar in Second Quarter.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Fidelity Investments reported that its brokerage unit got a tidal wave of net new client assets in the second quarter, while trading volume jumped 75%, when compared to the corresponding period last year. Net new client assets checked in at...

Morningstar Dilutes Criticism of Federated.(Federated Investors Inc., Fremont Investment Advisors Inc., investment advisers)
August 2, 2004... Morningstar ripped into Federated Investors and Fremont Investment Advisors last week, urging investors to avoid sending new money to the shops, only later to shy away from specific criticisms it had levied, but maintaining its recommendation....

SEC Releases Final Independence Rules: Criticizes Independence' of Relatives, Former Execs.(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission, fund independence rules)
August 2, 2004... The wait for details on the SEC's new fund independence rules is over, for last Tuesday, the Commission released its final regulations. The new rules will require that all fund board chairmen, as well as 75% of the board's members, be...

Ready or Not, Fund Proxy Disclosure Afoot.(mutual fund companies)
August 2, 2004... The days of cloak-and-dagger proxy ballots are over. Beginning Aug. 31, mutual fund companies will be required to reveal how their funds cast proxy votes on behalf of their shareholders. The new rule, put forth by the Securities and...

SEC Issues Wells Notice About Smith Barney Funds.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Citigroup has reportedly received a Wells notice from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to dealings at its mutual fund arm, Smith Barney. Back in November, Citigroup admitted to regulators that an agreement to erect an internal...

Nuveen Reports Record Second-Quarter Earnings.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Nuveen Investments reported a 14% increase in its second-quarter earnings of $36 million over the period of a year earlier, on a restated basis. The firm's operating revenues were $120.4 million, up 13% from 2003. Nuveen took in $6 billion in...

Janus Posts Strong Quarter, With Net Income of $130M.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Janus Capital reported a significant second quarter jump in income to $130.2 million from $47.5 million during the same quarter in 2003, according to a recent filing. Janus' balance sheet this quarter was buoyed by the sale of Janus' last...

Executive Moves.(Time Mahoney, Armada Funds, Peter Green, Prudential Financial Inc., Ron LoVetri, Integrated Decision Sytems)
August 2, 2004... Armada Appoints Mahoney As Head of Distribution National City's institutional asset management wing has tapped Tim Mahoney, who has almost 20 years in the financial services industry, as head of distribution for the Armada Funds. National...

Looking Under the SMA Hood: Adding and dropping money managers is both science and art. Here's some insight into the process.(Strategic Market Analysis)
August 2, 2004... After almost three years, it was over. This past December, Callan Associates, a San Francisco-based investment consultant overseeing asset managers in Charles Schwab's managed account program, removed Chartwell Investment Partner's large-cap...

Security Trust Re-Opens its Doors as AST Trust.(Security Trust Co., American Stock Transfer and Trust Co.)
August 2, 2004... A former leader in retirement plan recordkeeping and custodial services, personal trust services, and more recently custody services for registered investment advisers, Security Trust Co. fell prey to the SEC's microscope when it was charged in...

Funds Seeking Board Approval for CCO Short on Time: Cite Service Provider, Brokerage Oversight Concerns.
August 2, 2004... It's crunch time for mutual funds. With the Oct. 5 deadline for mutual funds to designate a chief compliance officer just two months away, fund executives are scrambling to get their policies and procedures in place. The question is are they...

Fidelity Brokerage Charged With Destroying Documents.
August 9, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange last week fined Fidelity Brokerage Services $2 million for destroying or altering records in at least 21 of its 88 branch offices. In a joint investigation, the SEC and...

Treadway Quits as CEO Of PIMCO Distributor.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Stephen Treadway, the chief executive officer of PIMCO affiliate PA Distributors, who was charged with fraud back in May, has left the company. Treadway and his firm, PA Distributors, which is a retail leg of Allianz Dresdner Asset Management...

$5B Pulled From Janus May Spark Activity.
August 9, 2004... Janus Capital has had to withstand some face slapping from investors while it attempts to cure its ailing business, but it may soon run out of available cheek space as the hits keep coming. The Denver-based fund shop, which has endured a...

Franklin Forks Over $50M to Settle Fraud SEC Offers Praise for its Pursuit of Timers.
August 9, 2004... Franklin Advisers wiped away some of the muck from the mutual fund trading scandal last week after agreeing to a $50 million settlement with regulators for its involvement in inappropriate trading of mutual fund shares. The Securities and...

Financial Firms Respond to Terror Threats: Security Experts Offer Hints on Protection.
August 9, 2004... The country is on edge from the recent warnings that terrorists are planning an attack before the November elections against financial services firms, and many experts say the financial service industry, including mutual fund companies, is ill...

Evergreen Expects Action From SEC on Fund Timing.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Evergreen Funds confirmed that the SEC is investigating potential market timing at the firm and may bring an enforcement against it. The firm's parent company, Wachovia, first made the indication that a former employee as well as a portfolio...

Georgeson Shareholder Acquires Alamo for $15.5M.(Alamo Direct Mail )(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Proxy and shareholder communication firm Georgeson Shareholder Services has acquired shareholder mailing firm Alamo Direct Mail in a $15.5 million deal. Through the acquisition, Georgeson aims to boost its standing as a comprehensive service...

Global Investment Systems Partners with Oracle DB.(Brief Article)
August 9, 2004... Global Investment Systems has broken with Extended Systems, its longstanding database provider, and is now using Oracle's database platform to power its latest shareholder accounting system, formally known as MFACT. Mary Pizzichino, U.S....

Executive Moves.(U.S. Bancorp)
August 9, 2004... Delaware Names Nutt Head Of Renamed Diversity Fund Delaware Investments has named D. Tysen Nutt, Jr. to lead the management team overseeing the Delaware Value Fund. The fund, formerly the Delaware Diversity Fund and recently renamed,...

NYSE Moves Toward Electronic Trading: Hybrid Market Aimed at Keeping Mutual Fund Customers.(New York Stock Exchange)
August 9, 2004... Facing increasing pressure to overhaul its antiquated trading system, the New York Stock Exchange has proposed reforms that could encourage more electronic trading in listed stocks. John Thain, chief executive of the NYSE, announced last...

Independent Directors Group Floats Best Practices.
August 9, 2004... Following the Securities and Exchange Commission's new requirements regarding mutual fund boards and independent trustees, the Mutual Fund Directors Forum, at the request of SEC Chairman William Donaldson, has weighed in with its own set of 32...

Managed Account Assets Rose 19.4% in 2Q to $529B.(separately managed accounts )(Brief Article)
August 16, 2004... Investors seeking a personal investment touch helped inflate the assets of separately managed accounts to $528.7 billion at the end of the second quarter, a 19.4% increase from the same period last year and a 6.3% jump during the first six...

Janus Loses Another $6.4B.(Brief Article)
August 16, 2004... Janus Capital's assets under management dropped $6.4 billion, or approximately 4.7%, to $129 billion in July, mostly due to market depreciation, the firm said. Eighty-seven percent of the drop-off was due to market depreciation, Janus...

SEC, Spitzer Bring First Annuity Charges.(Securities and Exchange Commission and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer )
August 16, 2004... Now, mutual funds don't have to feel quite so lonely. The Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have settled their first market-timing case against variable annuity issuers, with fines and disgorgement...

SEC Reconsidering Abusive Trading Curbs.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
August 16, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission is reconsidering proposals to curb market timing and eliminate late trading because the measures may unfairly affect pension plan participants and other long-term shareholders, according to the Government...

SEC Releases Strategic Five-Year Plan: Initiatives Include Hiring, IT Upgrades, Targeted Exams.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
August 16, 2004... Strategic five-year plans are a fact of life to corporate executives. But for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the nation's top securities regulator, this year's newly released five-year plan spanning 2004 through 2009 took a lot of...

Morningstar Cites Crocker As Evergreen Fund Timer.(Brief Article)
August 16, 2004... The former Evergreen Investments portfolio manager who was found to have engaged in allegedly improper trading of his own mutual fund shares likely was Prescott Crocker, former skipper of the Evergreen Precious Metals Fund and its High-Yield...

Piper Jaffray to Face Action For Directed Brokerage.(Brief Article)
August 16, 2004... Piper Jaffray indicated in a recent filing with the SEC that the National Association of Securities Dealers has told the firm to expect disciplinary action for directed-brokerage arrangements it entered into with several fund firms....

Executive Moves.
August 16, 2004... ICON Funds Hires Cheek For Institutional Sales Job Stephen Cheek, a 22-year industry veteran, has been hired by ICON Funds as director of consultant relations and sales for the company's institutional products. Cheek, who most recently held...

Janus Breaks Habit to Offer Broker-Sold Funds.
August 16, 2004... Once the pride of the direct-sold channel, Janus mutual funds can no longer boast that they sell themselves. As part of an extreme makeover in recent months, Janus Capital Group plans to start using brokers to pitch its mutual funds, a move...

Retirement Education Spurs Higher Savings Levels.
August 16, 2004... Mounting evidence shows education can indeed help employees make better decisions to build retirement savings, including a recent survey by the TIAA-CREF Institute and North Carolina State University (NCSU). Many companies offer financial...

Hedge Funds Not so Risky, Study Says.
August 16, 2004... On the eve of the SEC's Sept. 15 deadline for comments on whether hedge funds should be required to register, Hennessee Hedge Fund Advisory Group of New York has issued its 10th annual hedge fund study, once again claiming they are not the...

GORP': New Trail Mix for the Hike to Retirement.
August 16, 2004... The path to retirement can be a long haul, so author David Shapiro recommends using GORP: goal-oriented retirement planning. The admittedly cutesy acronym does not diminish the gravity of Shapiro's topic, funding retirement for the millions of...

Some Fund Firms Reinvent Wholesaler Roles: Internal Sales Teams Take on More Responsibility.
August 16, 2004... The tradition of separating internal marketing support desks and external rainmaker sales groups has come to an end at a handful of influential mutual fund companies, and some experts say they are on the cusp of revolutionizing investment sales...

Large Fund Groups Raise Issues with TAs.
August 16, 2004... Do larger funds groups have bigger headaches? If you work for a larger fund complex, chances are your concerns are oversized these days. A slew of new regulatory mandates have been dropped on fund advisors that are already grappling with...

SEC Factoids.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
August 16, 2004... * As of 9/30/03, the SEC had 3,208 employees in 18 Washington, and 11 regional offices. * Of those, 44% were attorneys, 22% were accountants/financial analysts, 6% were investigators/examiners, and 28% were administrative staff. * As...

Northern Trust to Grow Managed Accounts Abroad.
August 23, 2004... Northern Trust Global Investment Services plans to expand its wealth management, asset servicing, asset management, fund accounting and hedge fund administration businesses internationally. Stephen Potter, the head of Northern Trust's...

SEC Bans Some Broker Kickbacks: Forces Funds to Enhance Disclosure.
August 23, 2004... Federal securities regulators churned out two more mutual fund reforms last week as directed-brokerage practices were officially junked and portfolio managers met with new standards for disclosure. In an open meeting Wednesday, the...

Fund Distribution Set for Major Overhaul: FRC Maps Out Post-Scandal Fund World.
August 23, 2004... In the midst of the largest scandal in its 80-year history, and as a spate of new regulatory requirements gets underway, the mutual fund industry faces a major overhaul in the way it distributes funds. Disclosure to investors will likely...

Insurers Weigh in on Timing Measures: Annuities Face Own Set of Anti-Timing Problems.(Panel Discussion)
August 23, 2004... WASHINGTON - While the annuity industry remains hush-hush on the topic of the market-timing cases being brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Attorney General, this silence does not indicate a lack of opinion....

Van Eck May be Charged In Market-Timing Scheme.(Van Eck Associates)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... For its alleged part in a market-timing scheme, Van Eck Associates, which advises the Van Eck Funds, and two of its executives may be facing Securities and Exchange Commission charges, the company indicated in a filing. The news is far from...

SEC Brings Case Against Sterling Watters Group.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission hit Angelo Haligiannis and his Sterling Watters Group hedge fund with an emergency enforcement action for lying to investors about performance, complete with false documents, prospectuses and marketing...

Independent Researchers Rally Around Soft Dollars.(Brief Article)
August 23, 2004... Following the Mutual Fund Directors Forum's "best practices" could spell a bad reality for investors, a number of independent research firms argue in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Investorside Research...

Executive Moves.
August 23, 2004... Rollover Goes With Clark As Vice President of Sales 401(k) rollover specialist RolloverSystems Inc. has announced the hiring of Kevin M. Clark as vice president of sales, a position that will see him lead the charge in the company's...

401(k) Balances Rise 29% in 2003.
August 23, 2004... Participants in 401(k) plans saw their account balances grow by more than 29% last year, evidence that despite a difficult bear market in previous years, investors are still turning to the vehicle as an effective way to save over the long-term....

Manulife Styles Funds to Post Superior Returns: Lifestyle Funds Trump Single-Asset Class Offerings.
August 23, 2004... Participants in Manulife USA lifecycle funds have reaped higher returns on their investment in the last five years than do-it-yourself asset allocations, a recent survey conducted by investment consulting firm Burgess + Associates shows. ...

Affiliated Managers Plans New Fund, SMA Platform.
August 30, 2004... Affiliated Managers Group last week announced it will create a new subsidiary to create, distribute and service separately managed accounts and mutual funds. To be called Managers Investment Group, the new unit amounts to a minor sea change in...

Proxy Voting Disclosure Fuels Concern: Many Expect Investor Interest to Gain Steam.
August 30, 2004... It's time for fund companies to show their hands. The new mutual fund corporate proxy voting disclosure rule that the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed at the height of the corporate accounting scandals nearly two years ago, takes...

Are Money Management IPOs Heating Up?(Initial public offerings)
August 30, 2004... Although only two asset management firms have come to market with initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, the fact that there have been any at all has triggered speculation that investment management IPOs may slowly be coming back into...

Morningstar Unveils New Fiduciary Grades: But Critics Think System is Too Subjective.
August 30, 2004... By definition, intangibles cannot be measured, but that's exactly what Morningstar's recently launched Fiduciary Grade system is attempting. Last week, the Chicago-based fund research and ratings firm unveiled its newest offering, which assigns...

Ex-CIBC Rep Sentenced to Year in Jail in $20M Fraud.(Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)(Brief Article)
August 30, 2004... A former Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce employee currently serving a two-year conditional sentence for committing a $20 million fraud involving mutual fund clients has been sentenced to one year in jail by a Canadian court. The worker,...

Investors to Shoulder Bulk Of New Compliance Costs.(Brief Article)
August 30, 2004... In a new study, Financial Research Corp. predicts new SEC regulations will lead to a major shakeup for the mutual fund industry. FRC indicates that some mutual fund companies could pass on the costs of new regulations prompted by the...

Executive Moves.
August 30, 2004... Fornelli Leaves SEC For Bank of America Cynthia Fornelli, deputy director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's division of investment management and a major player in the agency's attempt to fix the mutual fund industry, is leaving...

Registered Hedge Fund Demand on the Rise: FRC.
August 30, 2004... The number of high-net-worth individuals rose sharply in 2003, a trend that represents a significant opportunity for asset managers offering registered hedge funds, according to a recently released white paper by Financial Research Corp. ...

When Middle of the Road is the Right SMA Path: Mid-caps may have been the forgotten strategy, but not at Wayne Hummer.(Wayne Hummer and Co)
August 30, 2004... When he talks about mid-caps, money manager Sandy Lincoln likes to recall the time when his then eight-year-old and six-year-old daughters asked if they could baby-sit. "I said, well, at eight years old, you can't baby-sit," he recalls....