Money Management Executive articles from February 2007

Money Management Executive archives from February 2007

Former CIBC Brokers Charged With Timing.(Michael Sassano and Dogan Baruh accused for securities fraud)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission announced last Wednesday it is taking proceedings against former CIBC brokers Michael Sassano and Dogan Baruh for allegedly assisting hedge funds market time mutual funds between 1999 and at least 2003....

Avoiding Pitfalls of 401(k) Plans.
February 5, 2007... BOSTON-As retirement plan sponsors navigate the rules and regulations of the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Labor they'll be looking to their service providers for help. And those service providers better have answers, according to...

Don't Call in the Taxidermists Yet: DB Plans Offer Business Opportunities.(defined benefit plans)
February 5, 2007... While defined benefit plans at large corporations may be going the way of the dinosaur, it might be a little early to call in the taxidermists. And for fund companies, catering to the survivors can present a lucrative business opportunity....

More Investors Flocking to Options.(securities regulations)
February 5, 2007... The options industry is growing, and over the next few years more institutional investors will seek to invest in them to diversify portfolios and lower risk. An option is the right for a buyer to buy or sell an asset at a set price on or...

SEC May Go Beyond Hedge Fund Accreditation.(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Despite industry support of a proposed rule raising the requisite assets investors need to buy into hedge funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now questioning whether more regulation may be needed. "The rulemaking doesn't...

Fidelity Trader's Mother To Take the Stand.(Fidelity Investments)(David Donovan, Jr.,)(Concetta Donovan)(purchase of shares)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Despite claims she is too ill to take the stand, Concetta Donovan, mother of former Fidelity Investments trader David Donovan, Jr., will testify about trades made in her account that mirrored those of the mutual fund company's. Of...

SEC Settles with Two N.J. Hedge Fund Execs.(HMC International's Robert Massimi and Bret Grebow accused for securities fraud)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Two managers of HMC International, a defunct hedge fund headquartered in Montvale, N.J., have agreed to pay $4.6 million after charges that they bilked investors to buy cars and trips, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission....

Fidelity Might Expand Facility Otside Dallas.(Fidelity Investments)(Brief article)
February 5, 2007... Fidelity Investments is considering expanding a facility outside of Dallas, in Westlake, Texas, by as many 1,500 jobs. The campus currently has 2,900 workers. The firm decided to do so after the town approved its request to extend tax breaks it...

Executive Moves.(Pioneer Investment Management Inc. appointed Teri W. Anderholm )(Evergreen Realty Group appointed William E. Kugler )(Touchstone Investments appointed Stephen Owen)
February 5, 2007... Anderson to Replace Retiring Integrity CEO Robert Walstad, founder, CEO and chairman of Integrity Mutual Funds, has retired from the firm but will continue to serve as a director on the funds' board. Replacing him is Mark R. Anderson,...

SEC Proposes Extending XBRL.(extensible business reporting language )
February 5, 2007... Mutual fund information might become even easier to sift through in the coming months for investors, analysts and brokers. The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously last Wednesday to seek public comment for 30 days on...

Hedged Mutual Funds Make the Grade.
February 5, 2007... The relatively new class of hedged mutual funds have generally outperformed traditional mutual funds, an academic study shows. Moreover, those funds run by current or former managers of traditional hedge funds-versus mutual fund portfolio...

Four Fidelity B/D Units Fined $3.75M by NASD.(broker/dealer )(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... The NASD has fined four Fidelity Investments broker/dealer subsidiaries $3.75 million for lax supervision, including allowing brokers to accept lavish gifts. As many as 1,000 of Fidelity registered reps didn't have supervisors, the NASD...

Opportunities in PPA Go Beyond 401(k)s.(Pension Protection Act )
February 12, 2007... WASHINGTON-Beyond automatic enrollment in 401(k) plans, the Pension Protection Act (PPA) includes a host of provisions that offer fund companies sales opportunities surrounding not how the 2006 law allows individuals to accumulate assets in...

Firms Step up to the Plate on Rule 22c-2.
February 12, 2007... Firms are starting to implement changes to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission's redemption fee Rule 22c-2, but not without encountering challenges. The deadline for the rule, which requires fund companies to have...

Vanguard Chief Big Fan' of Pension Act Says Act Prepares American Workers for Future.
February 12, 2007... WASHINGTON-The Pension Pro- tection Act (PPA) reflects a change not in the investment industry, but in the very fabric of the American workforce, said Vanguard Chief Executive and Chairman John J. Brennan. "When we look back from the...

Trautman Wasserman Hit With Late-Trading Charges.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking proceedings against brokerage Trautman Wasserman and a number of its executives, including its chairman and chief executive officer, charging them with late trading and market timing for clients...

SEC Probing Brokerages For Front-Running Trades.(Brief article)
February 12, 2007... The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly investigating whether large brokerage firms are sharing information about big trading blocks, by such companies as large mutual funds, with favored clients, such as hedge funds. ...

Bush Boosts SEC Budget By 3% to $905.3 Million.
February 12, 2007... President Bush's 2007 proposed budget increases funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission only 3%, to $905.3 million compared to $904.8 million in 2006. Last year, Congress cut that request down to $877.1 million. The budget calls...

Executive Moves.(Janus Capital Group Inc.'s Dave Martin and John Bluher resigning)(T. Rowe Price Group Inc. appointed Steven C. Huber )(Northern Trust Global Investments Inc. appointed Douglas McEldowney)
February 12, 2007... Janus CFO, Counsel Plan To Step Down in March Janus announced that both Dave Martin, the company's chief financial officer, and John Bluher, general counsel, will leave March 2. Janus said their departures are unrelated. Senior Vice...

SEC Gives Exemptive Relief For Foreign IDs.
February 12, 2007... An exemptive relief that the Securities and Exchange Commission granted last week to Rule 22c-2 is welcome news for mutual fund companies, as it will pave the way for the use of an alternate system of identifying foreign investors who are...

Retirees Successfully Managing Assets: EBRI.(Employee Benefit Research Institute)
February 12, 2007... Faced with the difficult task of managing assets to last them the rest of their lives, current retirees are doing a reasonably good job. The Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington recently issued a brief examining the financial...

Best Four Conferences to Attend in 2007.
February 12, 2007... Ever wonder why fund executives flock to mutual fund industry conferences? If you said golf and spa treatments at luxury resorts, you are correct. But if you said to learn about strategies to help their firms better compete and grow, you are...

NASD Fines Alliance, Putnam, Scudder $700,000.(National Association of Securities Dealers)(AllianceBernstein)(Putnam Investments )(DWS Scudder)
February 19, 2007... The NASD has fined AllianceBernstein, Putnam Investments and DWS Scudder a total of $700,000 for improperly paying for entertainment and guest expenses at training and education meetings. Scudder is paying $425,000, Putnam $175,000 and...

Responding to the PowerBoomer' Surge: Capturing Rollovers Means Providing More than Mutual Funds.
February 19, 2007... As the so-called "PowerBoomers" approach retirement, a surge of assets will begin leaving retirement plans and flowing into the open market. And as they retire, this group, now between the ages of 40 and 60 with between $1 million and $2...

401(k) Fee Scrutiny Boosts ETFs: If You Can't Join Em, Beat Em.(National Planning Corp. introduces online securities trading services for 401(k) plans)
February 19, 2007... Despite growing popularity and public awareness, exchange-traded funds still struggle to get onto 401(k) and other retirement plan platforms. But ETF providers aren't waiting around. Instead, companies like Santa Monica, Calif.-based...

Bigger Role Seen for Hedge Funds.
February 19, 2007... Hedge funds are viewed as high-risk investments and the average investor tends to shy away from them. But they can complement and offer diversification in an investor's portfolio, according to a recent Lipper "Research Series" report, "The Role...

Chamber Seeks Details Behind SEC Studies.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
February 19, 2007... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has petitioned the Securities and Exchange Commission to provide it, under the Freedom of Information Act, with details about how it conducted studies into the costs of implementing the independent directors rule....

SEC Alleges Hedge Fund Based on Insider Trading.(Zvi Rosenthal and David Heyman accused for securities fraud)(Brief article)
February 19, 2007... Four men pled guilty earlier this month to opening a hedge fund based sheerly on information gathered from illegal, insider-trading tips. Zvi Rosenthal, a 62-year old former vice president at Hawthorne, N.Y.-based Taro Pharmaceuticals,...

Executive Moves.(John Hancock Funds Inc.'s James K. Schmidt resigned and Lisa A. Welch promoted)(Pyramis Global Advisors appointed David M. Rose )
February 19, 2007... John Hancock Reassigns Financial Fund Skippers Due to the retirement of James K. Schmidt, head of its financial industries team, John Hancock Funds has reassigned a number of portfolio managers in the group. The changes affect three...

SEC Rule 22c-2-Much More than Contractual Agreements.
February 19, 2007... Now that the Securities and Exchange Commission's Rule 22c-2 has been finalized, mutual fund companies of all sizes are putting plans in place to potentially deal with the receipt and management of detailed shareholder transaction information...

The New Next Thing in Aggregation Portals.
February 19, 2007... The decade-long effort to make aggregation portals a viable and valuable business-building tool for advisers, broker/dealers and other financial intermediaries has reached a crossroads. Today, portals provide a single access point for...

Call Center Technology Boosts Customer Service.
February 19, 2007... Successful mutual fund service organizations realize that behind every transaction is a customer-a person with various commitments and interests, places to be and things to worry about. When building a customer relationship, technology can...

Money on the Move-The IRA Rollover Race.(individual retirement accounts)
February 19, 2007... How do you boost your endurance for the grand IRA rollover marathon anticipated in the years ahead? Gaining a deeper understanding of rollover investors may be just the strength training you need to go the distance. And the rewards can be...

Shareholder Revolution Still Possible: Bogle.(Vanguard Group Inc.'s John Bogle speaks at National Investment Company Service Association's Annual Conference & Expo in 1977)(Brief article)
February 26, 2007... MIAMI-John Bogle, founder and former chief executive of Vanguard, recalled his first speech before The National Investment Company Service Association's Annual Conference & Expo in 1977, when he predicted a shareholder revolution. While that...

Going Global? Think Local.
February 26, 2007... MIAMI-The economy may be going global, but it's not quite business-without-borders yet, according to panelists at The National Investment Company Service Association's 25th Anniversary Annual Conference & Expo here last week. "You can't...

Firms Need Solid Pandemic Plans: Strategies Must Extend Beyond Disaster Recovery.
February 26, 2007... MIAMI-Because the threat of a pandemic occurring is real and the question is when it will happen, not if, "companies are legally required to have a business continuity plan in place," said Jim Coppedge, general counsel at AIM Investment...

Reserve Floats Unusual Proxy Proposals: Fee Increases Sought as Lapsed Contracts Put Millions at Stake.
February 26, 2007... It's been nearly one year since Reserve Management, advisor to The Reserve family of money funds and the Hallmark family of funds, first revealed it had inadvertently allowed both the investment advisory and 12b-1 distribution contracts on the...

Investors Look Abroad For Best Returns in 2007.(Brief article)
February 26, 2007... A TD Ameritrade survey of 674 investors indicated that half of retail investors see the best returns in 2007 coming from markets outside of the United States, the company's Chief Executive Joe Moglia said during an interview with CNBC. ...

Lehman, Fidelity Link Stock Trading Platforms.(Brief article)
February 26, 2007... Lehman Brothers and Fidelity Investments announced last Wednesday that they have linked their electronic trading platforms. As commission prices have fallen, brokerage firms are seeking greater trading volume, and the move is seen as an...

Raymond James Fined $2.75M for Poor Oversight.(Raymond James Financial Inc.)(Brief article)
February 26, 2007... The NASD has fined Raymond James $2.75 million for lax supervision of 1,000 of its producing branch managers between 2000 and 2004. In a related action, NASD permanently barred one of the firm's former branch managers, Donna Vogt, for...

Executive Moves.(Edward C. Johnson IV appointed at Fidelity Investments)(Keith Kessel joins ALPS Fund Services)(Michael C. Bodson joins Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.)
February 26, 2007... Fidelity Gives Johnsons New FMR Board Posts Fidelity Investments has named the son of Chairman Edward C. Johnson III, Edward C. Johnson IV, a member of the FMR Corp. fund board and promoted his daughter, Abigail Johnson, who already was a...

Haaga Debunks Mutual Fund Myths'.
February 26, 2007... MIAMI-Index funds beating active managers and mutual fund costs rising are just two of numerous misconceptions about the industry that Paul G. Haaga, Jr., vice chairman of Capital Research and Management, addressed last week in his "Revisiting...

-ST_BY-.(The National Investment Company Service Association)(back-office operations)
February 26, 2007... MIAMI-The best laid battle plans lead nowhere unless the front-line troops buy in. And that takes turning process-oriented training into a cultural boot camp, said David Driskill, president of Boston-based National Quality Review (NQR)...