Money Management Executive articles from January 2004

Money Management Executive archives from January 2004

Ameritrade Emerges As Small, But Able, Giant.
January 5, 2004... Ameritrade is finally seeing the fruits of its labor, especially when it comes to its Advisor Services division. After 18 months of operation, at least after the implementation of Ameritrade Connection - its back-office platform for...

Regulators Set New Sights on 12b-1 Fees: Industry Waits as More Charge Fees.
January 5, 2004... Even before Fundgate took the industry by storm, critics were calling into question the use of 12b-1 fees. And now regulatory action appears imminent. Since the summer, the number of closed funds charging investors 12b-1 fees has...

The Proof is in the Earnings: Market Rally's Hopes Pinned to Corporate Profits.
January 5, 2004... Given the shocking developments that have come to the fore in the mutual fund scandal this past year, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the stock market is on a tear. Investors would be remiss to ignore the nascent recovery that has...

SMAs Conflicted on Fund Scandal Fallout.
January 5, 2004... If you sell brick houses, and the wooden houses next door catch fire, it's natural to see a marketing opportunity in your future. But financial advisers and separately managed account experts are divided about whether the current mutual...

Credit Unions to Sell Curian Managed Accounts.
January 5, 2004... Curian Capital will offer its managed account program through Security Service Investment Group, a unit of Security Service Federal Credit Union that distributes its investment products through a network of credit unions in San Antonio,...

Fidelity, NSCC Partner On Time-Stamp for Hard 4'.
January 5, 2004... Fidelity Investments, the National Securities Clearing Corp. and a group of fund companies and broker/dealers have partnered in a yearlong project to develop the technology to time-stamp mutual fund trades. They are hoping that by time-stamping...

Vegas Broker Hit $175M Mutual Fund Jackpot.
January 5, 2004... A former attorney turned Las Vegas hedge fund manager has reaped the biggest gains so far in the unfolding mutual fund scandal, the SEC charged. Daniel Calugar, 49, who took $175 million in ill-gotten gains, saw $50 million of the money...

Rydex Founder Dies of Pancreatic Cancer.
January 5, 2004... A.P. "Skip" Viragh, the founder of Rydex Funds, died at his Sarasota, Fla.-home on Dec. 11 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 62. Carl Verboncoeur, president of Rydex Fund Services, has taken on the CEO position of Rydex Investments, while...

Executive Moves.
January 5, 2004... Vintage Taps Mackay As New Pres & CEO Vintage Mutual Funds has named James Mackay as its new president and CEO. Mackay is currently serving as the president of the Investors Management Group, the investment adviser and administrator for the...

Investors Will Ultimately Pay.
January 5, 2004... My primary concern remains that Congress, and to a lesser extent the SEC, will rush forth some "cure-all" measures, rules, regulations and laws that are poorly conceived, perhaps along the lines of Sarbanes-Oxley. With each new regulation...

Saint Jack to the Rescue.
January 5, 2004... Roy Weitz, publisher of fundalarm.com, and Jack Bogle, founder, Vanguard Group, faced off last May on some of the problems the two outspoken critics have found rife in the industry (see inaugural issue of Money Management Executive 5/19/03)....

B/Ds, Advisers to Pay For Missed Breakpoints; $86 Million Owed: NASD.
January 12, 2004... Raymond James owes clients an estimated $6.9 million for failure to apply the appropriate breakpoint discounts, some $3.6 million of which it will recover from financial advisers at Raymond James & Associates and its independent broker/dealer,...

MFS Slashes Fees, Tightens Trading Rules: Asset Growth, Not Spitzer, Prompts Fee Cut.
January 12, 2004... In the wake of a massive settlement that forced Alliance Capital to lower mutual fund fees, an increasing number of fund shops, most notably MFS Investments, are cutting back operating expenses charged to shareholders. At first glance, the...

State Regulators Joining the Pileup.
January 12, 2004... In this game of high-stakes tag, there are no more hiding places and lots of Its. For fund firms that might have erred in judgment or flat-out committed crimes, theres nowhere to run now. Federal and local regulators are joining the...

Weak Morale at Strong Pales Putnam Resolve: Scandalous Firms Headed in Different Directions.
January 12, 2004... Its a tale of two cities. While its certainly not the best of times at Beantowns Putnam Investments, it seems to be the worst of times for the employees at Strong Financial in Menomonee Falls, Wi. Both firms are heavily involved in the scandal...

Fund Assets Rise $82B In November, ICI Reports; YTD, Flows Top $200B.
January 12, 2004... Assets under management in the mutual fund industry grew by $82.4 billion, or 1.2%, to $7.235 trillion in November, according to the Investment Company Institute. The trade groups monthly survey of fund companies showed that long-term...

A Subdued 80th Birthday For the Fund Industry.
January 12, 2004... In what should have been a three-month red carpet rollout to an 80th birthday party, the mutual fund industry is not even thinking of a gala. Instead, it is pondering mistakes of the recent past and reforms for the near future. Even the...

Executive Moves.
January 12, 2004... Harris CEO Raitt Named President of Oakmark Funds John Raitt, president and chief executive officer of Harris Associates, has been elected president of Oakmark Funds, which Harris advises. Raitt joined Harris as a research analyst in...

CEOs, Directors Slated for 5%-15% Raises.
January 12, 2004... NEW YORK - As far as the executive suite is concerned, its almost as if the fund scandal and corporate governance issues did not happen. Earnings in 2003 were so strong, that most executive compensation committees are voting their CEOs and...

Franklin Weaves a Tapestry for Wealthy Canadians.
January 12, 2004... Move SMAs into the mass-affluent Northern Lights, is the battle cry of Franklin Templeton Investments private client group of Toronto, Canada, the high-net-worth unit of Franklin Resources of San Mateo, Calif.. This past fall, just as...

ICI Defends Fund Fees versus Pension Fees.
January 12, 2004... WASHINGTON - The fees at pension funds and mutual funds are virtually identical once the two entities are compared as apples and apples and include sub-accounts, an Investment Company Institute economist said during a conference call last...

Good Guys Get Their Due: Morningstar Tabs Top Fund Skippers for 2003.
January 12, 2004... Given the current scandal plaguing the mutual fund industry, it is now more important than ever to recognize the efforts of those who have stayed true to shareholders and generated outstanding long-term results. Thats what Morningstar is...

Fidelity Expands Platform For Affluent Investors.
January 19, 2004... Fidelity Investments had affluent clients in mind last week when it introduced a wide-ranging platform designed to help registered investment advisers (RIAs) better serve those clients with a bevy of new trust services to go along with...

SEC Clamps Down on Fund Fees, Governance Brokers to Disclose Fees at Point of Sale.
January 19, 2004... The umpire strikes back. Investors are finally getting the right calls, as regulators have unveiled a series of aggressive steps to improve fund governance and eliminate hidden fees charged to shareholders. Responding to a wave of...

Fee Scrutiny Puts Pressure on Fund Marketing.
January 19, 2004... With the industry heading toward almost assured legislation relating to fees, the way funds market themselves is sure to morph, and some in the industry are bracing for a "revolution." Regulators have put the way fund companies conduct...

Scandal-Plagued Sub-Advisors Get the Boot Skeptics Wonder if Firings Are For Cause or Just For Show.
January 19, 2004... If it is true that politics makes strange bedfellows, then financial services scandals make for even more curious divorces. A peek at the behind-the-scenes wrangling shows that mutual fund boards are making some grave decisions about the...

J.P. Morgan Buys Banc One, Creates 4th Largest Fund Co.
January 19, 2004... J.P. Morgan Chase said on Wednesday that it is purchasing Chicago-based Banc One Corp., not only creating a banking giant, but also spawning the fourth-largest fund firm, according to research firm Lipper of New York The deal, for a...

Two FleetBoston Units Get SEC Wells Notice.
January 19, 2004... FleetBoston said on Thursday that two of its subsidiaries received a Wells notice from the SEC, indicating the agency's regional Boston office had recommended enforcement action against the firm for shirking its fiduciary duties. ...

Outsourcing: Helping Funds Protect and Grow Assets.
January 19, 2004... By Stephen M. Wynne, Executive Vice President, COO, PFPC Worldwide The mutual fund marketplace is more keenly competitive than ever before. In the past, fund companies have traditionally considered outsourcing daily, high-volume tasks and...

Merrill Predicts Economy Back in Black for 2004.
January 19, 2004... NEW YORK - The trek to the top isn't over quite yet, but the rate in which the economy climbs to the summit will slow in 2004, according to Robert Doll, Merrill Lynch Investment Managers' president and chief investment officer. While...

Better Corporate Governance Means Better Returns: Lipper.
January 19, 2004... Mutual fund managers who invest in companies with strong corporate governance profiles produce better long-term returns. That was the key finding of a recent research report examining the relationship between governance and performance. The...

Fund Reform Bill Headed For July Approval: Fink Urges Fund Execs to Cooperate with Regulators.
January 19, 2004... CINCINNATI - Although the Investment Company Institute successfully stalled the Baker Bill last spring, Congress is likely to pass and the President Bush is likely to approve the third piece of legislation in the history of mutual funds, ICI...

SEC Seeks Comment On New Code of Ethics.
January 26, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission last Tuesday put forth the details of its code of ethics proposal for mutual funds, as part of a three-pronged approach to improve corporate governance and disclosure in the $7 trillion industry. (See code...

Regulators Should Rethink, Not Sink 12b-1s Industry Relies on the $10 Billion in 12-b1 Fees: Lipper.
January 26, 2004... The best of intentions sometimes go awry. But, despite the 12b-1 rule's departure from its original spirit, dismantling the rule is not a viable option, research firm Lipper concludes in a recently released study. The 12b-1 rule was...

Companies Give Tainted Funds the Boot: Survey Shows Significant 401(k) Overhaul.
January 26, 2004... Nearly half of a pool of corporate finance chiefs say their company's 401(k) plan includes funds that have been tainted by the recent mutual fund scandal. This according to a survey published last week by Financial Executives International...

Federated Continues SMA Push into Retail.
January 26, 2004... It's not easy being the new kid on the block. But sometimes being the old kid on the block is no bed of roses, either. Federated Investors, which has a total of $193 billion in assets, has amassed $6 billion of that money in separately...

News Flash- Pension Leaders Announce New $1T Market Pressure.
January 26, 2004... Wielding their $1 trillion clout, state pension leaders and treasurers partnered with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently to tear into the SEC's proposed fund reforms. Announcing their new Mutual Fund Protection Principles at a...

News Flash- SEC to Hold Focus Groups On Broker-Sold Funds.
January 26, 2004... SEC Chairman William Donaldson said last Tuesday the agency will seek the opinions of the nation's 91 million mutual fund investors over the next 60 days on what the ideal point-of-sale and trade-confirmation reports should look like for...

Executive Moves.
January 26, 2004... Fidelity Taps Paton Twice; Adds Two to Debt Fund Squad Fidelity Investments veteran Ben Paton, who most recently handled Pan-European sectors like leisure and hotels, has two new positions. A nine-year Fidelity veteran, he is now...

Guinness Atkinson Runs Quirky Quiz Ads: Post-Bear, Humor Returns to Fund Advertising.
January 26, 2004... The series of unconventional print advertisements that the Guinness Atkinson Funds, Glendora, Calif., have been running in the Wall Street Journal since the start of this year are definitely not your typical mutual fund ads. Unlike more...

Scandal Forces Firms to Upgrade Executives.
January 26, 2004... With a scandal comes a scramble. Major changes among top executives are taking place at Bank of America, Putnam, Alliance and other high-profile firms. A report by Russell Reynolds Associates, New York, finds that low performance and high...