Money Management Executive articles from July 2006

Money Management Executive archives from July 2006

Banks Need Training To Sell SMAs.(separately managed accounts )
July 3, 2006... Solid Infrastructure, Consistent Support Also Key NEW YORK - Tapping into the banking distribution channels to sell increasingly popular separately managed accounts has third-party providers salivating. But before investment advisors can...

Investors Still Not Getting Breakpoints.
July 3, 2006... New Bright-Line Share Class Rules Not Clear Enough Investment companies' new bright-line share class limits may not be enough to protect investors from mutual fund breakpoints sales abuse, according to a recent report. Investors still...

Funds-of-ETFs Picking Up Steam.(exchange-traded funds )
July 3, 2006... Advisors Take Advantage of ETFs' Popularity Mutual funds that invest exclusively in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are growing in numbers as the popularity of ETFs themselves has grown dramatically. Many fund advisors are realizing that...

At Deadline.(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... World's Millionaires Rise 6.5% in 2005 to 8.7 Million The number of millionaires in the world rose 6.5% in 2005 to a total of 8.7 million people with combined total assets of $33.6 trillion, a survey by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini found....

Appeals Court Rejects SEC Hedge Fund Rule.(Securities Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Federal watchdogs seeking to increase regulations of hedge funds suffered a recent setback when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia called the Securities and Exchange Commission's advisor registration rule "arbitrary,"...

SEC Adopts New Rules For Funds-of-Funds.
July 3, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission has put three new rules and one amendment in place regarding funds-of-funds. The new rules codify exemptions that the SEC has granted over the years for such funds, while the amendment is a new...

Citigroup, Legg Mason Agree to Swap Deal.(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Citigroup has swapped its asset management division in exchange for Legg Mason brokers and stock. In the deal, which will close in the fourth quarter, Citigroup will receive Legg Mason's 1,354 brokers in 127 branch offices throughout 22 states,...

Executive Moves.(Evergreen Investments L.P. - Peter Cieszko)(Lincoln Financial Group - Paul M. Swanson)(CheckFree - Michael Gianoni)
July 3, 2006... Evergreen Hires Cieszko As Distribution Chief Evergreen Investments, the investment management unit of Wachovia, has hired Peter Cieszko to be president of global distribution, a newly created post. Cieszko is to head the fund...

Full-Service Brokers Losing Hold on Affluent.
July 3, 2006... Full-service brokers made something of a comeback in the past year, but it remains to be seen whether they truly have ended the erosion of their market share as primary advisers to the affluent. Research that our firm, Spectrem Group of...

Mellon: Institutional, Individual Investors on a Crash Course.(Ron O'Hanley)(Mellon Financial Corp.)
July 3, 2006... Advisers Must Learn About, Explain New Products Better NEW YORK - As millions of Americans begin shifting their savings from company-sponsored retirement programs and Individual Retirement Accounts, they face a crash course in managing...

Correction.(Correction notice)
July 3, 2006... Quotes attributed to Steve Cohen of HSBC in the June 26 issue of MME should have been attributed to HSBC Bank U.S. Chief Executive Officer Martin Glynn. HSBC Bank U.S. is headquartered in New York. (c) 2006 Money Management Executive and...

-ST_BY-.
July 3, 2006... (c) 2006 Money Management Executive and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.mmexecutive.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

Treadway Found Guilty of Enabling Market Timing.(Stephen Treadway)(Pimco Advisors Distributors )(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... A Federal jury in New York found Stephen Treadway, the former chief executive officer of Pimco Advisors Distributors and the former chairman of the board of the Pimco equity funds, guilty on June 30 of permitting hedge fund Canary Capital...

SPARK Offers Rule 22c-2 Guidelines: Despite Help, Compliance Won't Come Easy.( The SPARK Institute)
July 10, 2006... As fund companies and their intermediaries continue to grapple with the finer points of the Securities and Exchange Commission's looming redemption fee rule, industry groups have been working on ways to make complying less complicated. The...

Trust Conversions at Core of BoA Suit: Spate of Lawsuits Could Jeopardize Bank Proprietary Funds.
July 10, 2006... The second of two lawsuits filed against large banks in as many weeks, if decided in favor of the various plaintiffs, has the potential to threaten the entire landscape of bank proprietary mutual funds. What is more, similar lawsuits...

Boomers Bounce Toward Dividends: Total Return Strategy Stretches Savings.
July 10, 2006... As more Americans crack open their retirement nest eggs, many are turning toward dividend-bearing investments in a scramble for greater security. "Baby Boomers have worked hard for their money, and now they want it to work for them," said...

T. Rowe Plans to Double Size of Colorado Campus.(T. Rowe Price Group Inc.)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... T. Rowe Price plans to double the size of its Colorado Springs, Colo., campus, adding a $55 million building to support nearly 900 additional employees. Construction on the 145,000-square-foot building is set to begin in July, pending local...

Morningstar Expands Hedge Fund Data Offerings.(Morningstar Inc.)(Brief article)
July 10, 2006... Morningstar has added hedge fund information to its website for individual investors and to its adviser workstation for financial planners, rounding out the availability of the information, which heretofore had only been available to...

Executive Moves.(Securities and Exchange Commission - Lori Schock)(Morgan Stanley - Jim McCarthy)(Affiliated Managers Group Inc. - Stephen H. Belgrad )
July 10, 2006... SEC Names Schock Acting Dir. of Investor Education The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Lori Schock acting director of the Office of Investor Education and Assistance. Schock, who had been deputy director of the office, replaces...

TIAA-CREF in Cross-Sell Deal as 529 Market Share Falls.
July 10, 2006... TIAA-CREF's deal to acquire a provider of planned-giving services to colleges and other not-for-profit entities may help it improve cross-selling to institutional clients, analysts said, as its market share dwindles in the college savings...

Northern Trust Adds Multi-Manager Funds to Target Wealthy.(Northern Trust Securities Inc.)
July 10, 2006... Northern Trust's three new open architecture, multi-manager mutual funds are the first in a series aimed at helping wealthy investors better allocate their assets with smaller investment managers. The funds give investors access to...

Glassman Rues Divisive Indy, Hedge Fund Rules.(Cynthia Glassman )(independent chairman )(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
July 17, 2006... Securities and Exchange Commissioner Cynthia Glassman said "it is unfortunate [the SEC] wasted so much time and effort" on the independent chairman and the hedge fund registration rules, only to have them voided by the U.S. Court of Appeals....

Some Call Soft Dollar Guidance Weak.(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)
July 17, 2006... In an effort to leave less to the imagination, members of the Securities and Exchange Commission last week unanimously approved the first set of soft dollar guidelines issued in 20 years. While some championed the guidelines as a boon to the...

Advisors Looking to Expand Revenue.(global investment management survey)(Survey)
July 17, 2006... Investment managers are positive about the future and are focused on revenue expansion rather than cost cutting, according to the "Global Investment Management Survey" from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study, based on interviews with chief...

Roth 401(k) Plans Popular But Scarce: Providers Push Seven-Month-Old Program.
July 17, 2006... Employees at Associated Agencies, an insurance company in Rolling Hills, Ill., have joined the small, but growing, number of workers with a new option for retirement savings: the Roth 401(k). First approved by Congress in 2001, but only...

DTCC to Expand Data in Mutual Fund Profile.(Depository Trust and Clearing Corp enhancing its service towards Mutual Fund)(Brief article)
July 17, 2006... The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. is planning to enhance its Mutual Fund Profile Service, expanding data to be more consistent with fund companies' prospectus rules and making it easier for funds to provide customer information to their...

Legg Mason to Streamline Mutual Fund Complex.(Brief article)
July 17, 2006... Legg Mason filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to streamline its mutual fund complex by merging U.S. funds and liquidating others, resulting in 119 funds as opposed to the current 166. Most of the former Smith Barney and...

Money Market Funds Seen Reaching Yields of 5%.
July 17, 2006... With the Fed fund rate now at 5.25%. experts believe money market funds will soon reach yields of 5%, and when that happens, investors might move assets from equity to money market funds. (c) 2006 Money Management Executive and SourceMedia,...

Executive Moves.(Putnam Lovell NBF Securities)(Morgan Stanley's wealth management group)(Diversified Investment Advisors)
July 17, 2006... Putnam Lovell Appoints Goldberg Managing Dir. Richard S. Goldberg has joined Putnam Lovell NBF Securities as managing director of investment banking in the financial institutions group. He comes to the company from Sandler O'Neill &...

Delaware's Goal: Maintain the SMA Momentum.
July 17, 2006... Once you've achieved relative success, how do you keep the momentum going? That's the question executives at Delaware Investments of Philadelphia have been pondering. Within the last several months, the firm has broken through the top 10...

Older Workers Biggest Participators in 401(k)s.
July 17, 2006... Workers nearing the retirement age are becoming savvier about preparing for retirement, with 64% of employees between the ages of 51 and 60 participating in a retirement plan in 2003, a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute of...

Calculator Helps Potential ETF Investors.(exchange-traded funds)(Rydex Investments of Rockville)
July 17, 2006... To help determine whether mutual funds or exchange-traded funds are best for a client, Rydex Investments of Rockville, Md., has launched an online trading expense calculator. The Rydex Trading Expense Calculator prompts advisers to enter...

TIAA-CREF: Returns,Not SRI, Drive Investments.(Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund survey: socially responsible investing strategies)(Brief article)
July 24, 2006... While things like the environment and social concerns influence what people choose as investments, the bottom line is still what matters most, according to a survey released by TIAA-CREF. This survey affirms that our participants want a...

Demand Rising for Target-Date Funds: But Barriers to Entry Make Innovation Critical.
July 24, 2006... Target-date funds seem to have zeroed in on a nearly insatiable market, by providing a virtually decision-free investment option for notoriously indecisive 401(k) plan participants. That creates huge opportunitiesand competitive...

Money Fund Yields up with the Mercury: Cold Hard Cash Once Again Red Hot.
July 24, 2006... Cold hard cash is hot this summer. With money market fund yields rising right along with the mercury, the long-neglected instruments are enjoying inflows unseen since 2000, according to data from New York-based iMoneyNet. I dont think...

Regulators Work to Protect Seniors.
July 24, 2006... Regulators are moving the issue of senior citizen investment fraud and abusive sales practices to the forefront, with the hope of making seniors more cognizant of such fraud and educating them about scam tactics, before more investors are...

Morningstar Buys SMA, Hedge Fund Databases.
July 24, 2006... Fund tracker Morningstar plans to double its hedge fund coverage and significantly increase coverage of separately managed accounts through the acquisition of databases from InvestorForce. The $10 million acquisition includes information of on...

NG to Acquire Fund Unit From ABN Amro Taiwan.
July 24, 2006... ING has struck a deal with ABN Amro to buy its fund business in Taiwan for as much as $86 million, pending regulatory approval. The deal would make ING the biggest fund company in the country, with a 17% market share, and comes at a time...

Executive Moves.(OppenheimerFunds appointed Jerry Webman as chief economist)(Callan Associates hired Lori Lucas as senior vice president)(Evergreen Investments elected Patricia B. Norris for board of trustees)
July 24, 2006... OppenheimerFunds Names Webman Chief Economist OppenheimerFunds has named Jerry Webman chief economist, although he will continue to serve as senior investment officer and director of fixed income. Before joining OppenheimerFunds in 1996,...

Smith Barneys Hatch Discusses New Institutional Push.(Interview)
July 24, 2006... Paul Hatch is executive vice president and director of investment advisory services for Smith Barneys consulting group and portfolio management group, both of which cater to wealthy private clients. Hatch, who assumed his title in early 2004...

Wyoming Closes 529 Plan, Punts to Colorado: Tennessee, Feeling the Squeeze, Also Considering Options.
July 24, 2006... In what may prove to be the first wave of a Darwin-like consolidation and contraction within the $89.5 billion 529 college savings plan market, the State Treasurer of Wyoming, which sponsors the smallest of all 529 college savings plans, with...

Waddell & Reed Settles Timing Case for $52M.(Waddell and Reed agrees with Securities and Exchange Commission to pay $50 million in restitution to investors )(Brief article)
July 31, 2006... Waddell & Reed reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Kansas Securities Commissioner Chris Biggs over market timing in its mutual funds between 1995 and 2003, agreeing to...

SEC Rule Boosts Soft-Dollar Spending.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
July 31, 2006... Now that the Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines on soft dollars are set, experts predict a resurgence in soft-dollar spending, and service companies see an opportunity to help firms navigate the safe harbor. Cautious of...

Investors Urged to Scrutinize Contracts: Advisor Contracts Deemed as Critical as Executive Pay.
July 31, 2006... As regulators wrangle with how individual companies disclose stock options and executive pay, mutual fund experts are now urging shareholders to take a close look at their advisor contracts to see what they are paying the people who run their...

ETFs a Threat to Mutual Funds: Celent.(exchange-traded funds)(Celent Communications)
July 31, 2006... One of the hottest selling areas in the mutual fund industry has been exchange-traded funds-so much so that asset managers anxious to enter the market are now developing proprietary indexes of their own on which to base such funds, launching...

Funds Take Advanage of Fixed Income Platform.( mutual fund companies signs with Fixed Income Clearing Corp for sponsor membership program)(Brief article)
July 31, 2006... In less than 10 months, 350 mutual fund companies have signed on to the Fixed Income Clearing Corp.'s (FICC) sponsor membership program, granting access to $3.5 trillion worth of daily government securities trading. "This shows how much...

Fidelity Brokerage Assets Rise 21% to $1.5 Trillion.(Brief article)
July 31, 2006... Fidelity Brokerage reported its assets in the second quarter rose 21% to $1.5 trillion. Driving those strong sales was money invested in individual retirement accounts, money market funds and Fidelity's target-date Freedom Funds. In addition,...

Executive Moves.(Legg Mason selects James W. Hirschmann as chief operating officer)(Direxion Funds hires five executives to expand its sales)(Affiliated Managers Group names John Kingston as executive vice president)
July 31, 2006... Legg Taps Hirschmann As Chief Operating Officer Legg Mason has selected James W. Hirschmann as chief operating officer. He will retain the title of president, which he assumed on May 1, and of chief executive officer and president of...

Few Sponsors Foresee Employees as Retirement-Ready.
July 31, 2006... Investors are not adequately prepared financially for retirement, despite participation in retirement plans increasing, according to a "401(k) Benchmarking" survey by Deloitte Consulting of New York, in which more than 800 plan sponsors were...

Firms Must Actively Learn to Use Technology: e-Business Tools Can Improve Wholesaler Productivity.
July 31, 2006... Optimistic by nature, Americans are inclined to believe that there is a technology fix for nearly every problem. While that may or may not be the case, there is at least one challenge in the asset management business that can be effectively...

Principal's Acquisition of WM Advisors Intensifies M&As.(Principal Financial Group)(Merger and acquisition)
July 31, 2006... Merger and acquisition activity within the investment advisory industry is red hot this year, with the second quarter of 2006 already shaping up to be active. Last week, The Principal Financial Group, of Des Moines, Iowa, agreed to acquire...