Money Management Executive articles from January 2005

Money Management Executive archives from January 2005

Fourth-Quarter Rally Gives Solid Boost to Equity Funds.(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... A rally in the fourth quarter boosted most equity funds, which rose an average of 13.6% for the year, well above the S&P 500's 9% gain. Of all sectors, small-cap value funds were the biggest winners, rising 20.9% in 2004. The second-best...

Long-Term Funds Reap $19 Billion in November.(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Mutual funds had stronger net inflows in November than in the month before or the year earlier, according to Financial Research Corp. Stock and bond funds had $19 billion of net inflows last month, up a mere 1.6% from last year, when stock...

NASD Collected Record $102 Million in Fines in 04.(National Association of Securities Dealers)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... NASD announced it collected $102 million in fines throughout 2004, filed 1,360 enforcement actions and barred or suspended 830 people. NASD officials also brought 120 disciplinary actions against securities firms regarding mutual fund sales and...

05 Market Seen Higher Despite Dollar Frailty.
January 10, 2005... Fund traders see the stock market poised for another year of positive returns in 2005, but expect weakness in the dollar and a dropoff in corporate earnings to limit its upside potential. Fueled by strong profits and a post-election...

Tsunami's Economic Impact Seen as Minimal.
January 10, 2005... As assessment of the Indian Ocean tsunami continues, fund analysts beginning to measure financial risk in the region said equity and fixed-income markets remained stable. Despite the colossal human tragedy and destruction of 20,000 miles of...

Funds to Move to Single Sales Platform.
January 10, 2005... The mutual fund industry has weathered its midlife crisis, a two-year period marked by the trading scandal, and is now on the way to becoming a mature industry, Ernst & Young reports in its annual "State of the Financial Services Industry...

J.P. Morgan Chase Eyed For Facilitating Late Trades.(J.P. Morgan Chase and Co.)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... Regulators are reportedly turning their attention toward J.P. Morgan Chase for its role in facilitating improper trades by Canary Capital Partners, the hedge fund that touched off the mutual fund trading scandal. The Securities and Exchange...

IRS Established New Rules To Prevent 401(k) Leakage.(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... The Internal Revenue Service has just issued guidance on a rule that has been on the books since 2001 to prevent employers from liquidating 401(k) rollover accounts with values between $1,000 and $5,000. Heretofore, when an employee had...

SEC Requests Information From Buffet's General Re.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(General Re Securities Holdings)(Brief Article)
January 10, 2005... The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested information from Warren Buffet's General Re about the sale of products to generate steadier earnings. The SEC is interested in a type of reinsurance known as a finite loan, which comprised...

Executive Moves.(Icon Funds)
January 10, 2005... American Century Adds Two Independent Chairmen One year ahead of the independent fund chair mandate, American Century Investments has complied with it, tapping Donald H. Pratt and Ronald J. Gilson as chairmen of two of the company's fund...

Mutual Fund CRM Going Mainstream.(Customer Relationship Management)
January 10, 2005... The use of customer relationship management (CRM) technology and systems in the fund industry continues to evolve. CRM applications have gone from virtual obscurity within the investment management industry to become standard among sales and...

Wells Fargo Cracks Top 20 in Fund Assets: Signals New Chapter for Sullied Strong Funds.(Wells Fargo & Co.)(Strong Financial Corp.)
January 10, 2005... Banking giant Wells Fargo is ready to play with the big boys in the mutual fund business. The nation's fifth-largest bank last week became one of the 20 largest mutual fund companies after completing its acquisition of $29 billion in...

Scandal to Continue to Boost Fund Hiring in 2005.
January 10, 2005... Recruiting experts are predicting a relatively flat job market for the fund industry in 2005, although the trading scandal continues to reshape the boardrooms and executive suites of fund management firms, big and small. In its annual...

Southwest, Kaplan Brokers Reach Timing Settlements.(Kaplan Cos.)(Southwest Securities Inc.)
January 17, 2005... Two brokerage firms reached settlements in market-timing and late-trading charges last week. Dallas broker/dealer Southwest Securities agreed last Monday to pay $10 million for allegedly failing to prevent its registered reps from submitting...

Morningstar Buys VARDS.(Finetre )(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... With four owners in 4-1/2 years, many hope that VARDS has finally found a home with Morningstar, which announced last week it has bought the company from Finetre for $9 million in cash, adjusted for working capital. Morningstar decided to...

Merrill Foresees Modest Stock Growth in 05: Lower GDP May Negate Promise of Year Ending in Number Five.
January 17, 2005... NEW YORK - If history is any indication, the U.S. stock market should enjoy a measure of growth in 2005. That's because, as Merrill Lynch Investment Managers President and Chief Investment Officer Robert Doll pointed out, experts must look...

Schwab Launches 3rd SMA Program for RIAs.(Charles Schwab Corp., separately managed account, registered investment advisors)
January 17, 2005... Charles Schwab Corp. of San Francisco has launched its third separately managed account program catering to the needs of registered investment advisors (RIAs), which Schwab's institutional services division primarily supports with custody and...

ETFs' Low Cost Attracts Attention of 401(k)s.(Exchange Traded Funds)
January 17, 2005... Exchange-traded funds, which have grown by leaps and bounds since their introduction in 1993, are now attracting attention from what is seemingly the unlikeliest of corners: 401(k) plans. While mutual funds have been the cornerstone of 401(k)s,...

SEC, NASD Collaborate on Fee Disclosure Guidelines.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(National Association of Securities Dealers)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... The Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASD are said to be cooperating on new fee disclosure rules to make sure investors are fully aware of all mutual fund fees, including obscure fees sometimes hidden in prospectuses. Although the SEC...

T. Rowe Price Expands Adviser Class Lineup to 24.(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... T. Rowe Price has added adviser share classes on four of its funds, thereby expanding its total adviser class lineup to 24. One of the funds, the T. Rowe Capital Opportunity fund, has also been given an R share class, making it eligible for...

Vanguard's ETF Assets Double to $5.9B in 2004.(Exchange Traded Funds)(Vanguard International Fund)(Brief Article)
January 17, 2005... Vanguard's exchange-traded fund assets more than doubled last year as the mutual fund titan rolled out 18 new ETFs. Assets under management in Vanguard's proprietary VIPER ETFs grew to $5.9 billion from $2.6 billion since the end of 2003,...

Hedge Fund Administrators Forge Way for Timely NAVs.(Net Asset Values)(Interview)
January 17, 2005... While the trading scandal has put an increasing demand on mutual funds to provide more accurate fair valuation on their portfolios, hedge funds are also under increasing pressure to reveal their net asset values (NAVs) on a more timely basis....

Executive Moves.(AXA Group, Fred Alger Management Inc., J.P. Morgan Investor Services)
January 17, 2005... AXA Distributors Names Kennedy Broker/Dealer VP John Kennedy, previously vice president and national sales director of The Hartford subsidiary Planco, has been named senior vice president of the broker/dealer channel at AXA Distributors....

Fund Outflows Expected To Reach $3B in January.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... The lackluster stock market performance so far this year reportedly may foreshadow a weak year for equity fund investors who subscribe to a theory known as the January effect. Historic stock market returns suggest equity fund performances...

Index Funds Beat Most Active Funds in 2004: S&P.(Standard & Poor's)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Mutual fund investors who put their money in index-based investments edged out others who bet on actively managed funds in all but one of the major style categories, according to a newly released study by Standard & Poor's. Only large-cap...

Growth Fund of America Gains $30 Billion in 2004,.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Growth Fund of America, the flagship investment fund at Capital Research Group, gained $30 billion of new assets last year to become the largest actively traded U.S. stock fund. The $95 billion fund, which trades in 14 share classes, is second...

SEC Blasts Lawsuit Over Fund Chair Rule: Demands Proof of Harm to Advisors.(Securities and Exchange Commission, Chamber of Commerce of the United States)
January 24, 2005... The fight for independence may already be a foregone conclusion, but fierce battles are still being waged. The Securities and Exchange Commission is urging a federal appeals court to dismiss a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawsuit aimed at...

Closed-End Funds in New Timing Scheme: SEC Sues Day Trader for Marking the Close'.(Securities and Exchange Commission, Thomas E. Edgar)
January 24, 2005... The Securities and Exchange Commission has unearthed yet a new type of mutual fund market timing, charging an Urbana, Ill.-based Internet day trader with three counts of violating exchange laws. The case further underscores the Commission's...

SEC Checklist Gives CCOs First Job Roadmap.(Securities and Exchange Commission, chief compliance officers)
January 24, 2005... As recently as last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission advised mutual fund chief compliance officers to, essentially, talk among themselves to figure out their demanding new roles. While that hardly provides executives in these...

Jones Netted $82.4M From Revenue Sharing in 2004.(Edward D. Jones and Co.)(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Edward D. Jones has revealed that revenue-sharing generated $82.4 million for the firm last year. The Securities and Exchange Commission acknowledges that revenue-sharing fees are legal but says the practice should be disclosed to customers....

Lipper Sees Equity Funds Returning 2%-10% in 2005.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2005... Amid a falling dollar and a cloudy investment environment, domestic equity funds will return modest gains between 2% and 10%, according to Lipper. Don Cassidy, senior research analyst with the fund tracking firm, expects rising interest to...

Executive Moves.(briefs)
January 24, 2005... JPMorgan Names Leary To Oversee Compliance Michael J. Leary, a veteran at JPMorgan Investor Services, will take over as the main liaison to the chief compliance officers of his company's clients. In his new role, Leary will head up...

529 Plan Web Sites Pair Investors, Advisers.(Investforcollege.com)
January 24, 2005... Web sites that provide an array of information to would-be 529 plan investors are focusing more and more these days on pairing financial planners, advisers and registered reps to those investors. Sites like Savingforcollege.com, and the...

SMA Assets to Reach $718 Billion in 05: Firms Look to Solve Multi-Currency Issues.(Separately managed accounts)
January 24, 2005... Separately managed accounts are poised to continue their growth spurt in 2005, as assets are projected to rise to $718 billion by the end of the year, according to industry trade association Money Management Institute. With assets at $535...

Wells Fargo Plans to Scrap Strong Funds Brand Name.(Strong Financial Corp.)(Wells Fargo & Co.)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... The Strong Funds moniker will soon be added to the scrap heap of discarded financial service firm brands next quarter after Wells Fargo fully incorporates the assets it acquired last year from Strong Financial Corp. Wells Fargo officials are...

Revenue Sharing Boosts Mutual Fund Sales Tenfold.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... A mutual fund that pays a brokerage firm to be on the firm's preferred group of investments list may receive up to 10 times the amount of money as a fund not listed with the brokerage firm, according to new research from Cerulli Associates. ...

Morningstar's New Tools Find Breakpoint Discounts.(Morningstar Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... Fund-tracking firm Morningstar has launched a set of Internet-based applications to help advisers at brokerage firms comply with federal regulations requiring them to inform clients of mutual fund breakpoint discounts on front-end sales loads....

Federated Probe Widens as SEC Targets Officers: Timing, Late-Trading Woes Impede Fund Sales.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Federated Investors Inc.)
January 31, 2005... Federated Investors announced last week that it is engaged in talks with state and federal regulators to resolve previously reported trading abuses at its fund unit and that two of its officers could face enforcement actions. The...

Janus Ties Manager Pay to Performance: Plans to Spend $23M on Ads, Grow Intermediary Biz.(Janus Capital Group Inc. introduces Mutual Fund Share Investment Plan )
January 31, 2005... Janus Capital confirmed last week that its trustees have approved a new compensation plan that ties portfolio manager pay more closely to the performance of its mutual funds, advancing the interests of its shareholders and providing further...

Innovation Hits the Internal Fund Sales Desk.
January 31, 2005... A position once delegated to shuffling papers and answering telephones, the internal wholesaler is taking on greater significance as mutual fund companies search for ways to cut costs, streamline distribution and enhance service for their...

Directors Council Calls For Strong Independent Chairs.(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... Independent directors who are required to head mutual fund boards by 2006 must have enough authority to perform their duties by pushing back against management, according to a newly released report commissioned by an industry trade group...

Massachusetts Subpoenas Morgan on Annuity Sales.(Massachusetts. Secretary of the Commonwealth )(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has subpoenaed Morgan Stanley and other brokerage firms to find out whether they disclosed to investors payments they received from insurance firms to sell their variable annuities. ...

Anti-Timing Tactics Upset Fidelity's Pension Clients.(Fidelity Investments)(Brief Article)
January 31, 2005... Some institutional pension plan sponsors, including Coca-Cola, have reportedly walked away from Fidelity Investments after the mutual fund giant implemented stringent short-term trading penalties to deter market timers. Vanguard also blocked...

Executive Moves.(appointments)
January 31, 2005... PFPC Worldwide Promotes COO Wynne to President PFPC Worldwide has appointed Stephen M. Wynne, a 25-year veteran of the company, as president, in charge of the firm's operations across the globe. He will report to Chairman and CEO Timothy B....

Equity Funds Take in $220B in 2004 But Industry Loses $34B Overall.
January 31, 2005... A lackluster December in mutual fund sales closed the curtain on a year that wasn't overly dramatic for the industry, according to fund tracker Lipper of New York. While the S&P 500 rallied by 3.4% in the final month to help deliver a solid,...

IRA Rollovers Go High Tech.(Individual Retirement Accounts)
January 31, 2005... By making it easier for investors to roll over assets from qualified employee benefit plans to IRAs, two service providers are giving financial service providers a better shot at capturing those often elusive assets. Wealth Management...