Money Management Executive articles from July 2008

Money Management Executive archives from July 2008

Talent Grabs Keep Flaring Despite High Cost.
July 7, 2008... Mutual fund companies and other financial services firms continue to battle one another for wealth management talent even though companies are forced to pay hefty salaries that crimp profits. An executive recruiter with Russell Reynolds,...

Forward Mgmt. Takes Another Forward Leap.
July 7, 2008... At first glance, Forward Management LLC of San Francisco looks like a typical investment management boutique, presiding over a current family of 16 niche mutual funds. But Forward's investment talents are broader than they first appear,...

Target-Date Funds May Not be Best DC Option: Enormously Popular Category Has Yet to be Perfected.
July 7, 2008... Despite their tremendous growing popularity for their set-it-and-forget it convenience of automatically reallocating equity-to-fixed income ratios every year for 401(k) investors, target-date mutual funds may not be the best option for defined...

Cool, Calm & Reflective: How Flanagan Saved Invesco From Itself.
July 7, 2008... Back in 2005, the chances that Amvescap, now Invesco, would make a 360-degree turnaround seemed virtually impossible, but with a little bit of time and the addition of Martin Flanagan as chief executive officer, the unlikely actually occurred....

Adviser Confidence In Banks, Economy Falls.
July 7, 2008... Adviser confidence in the economy and stock market declined in June, according to Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking. The Rydex Advisor Confidence Index fell 3.07%, to 96.93, from a month earlier, due to heightened concerns about rising energy costs,...

Executive Moves.(Merk Investments has hired William Poole)(JPMorgan Funds Ltd. hired Steve Lundquist)(GLG Partners has hired Fabrice Bay as a portfolio manager )
July 7, 2008... Merk Investments Recruits Former St. Louis Fed Prez Merk Investments has hired William Poole, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, as senior economic adviser. As president of the St. Louis Fed, Poole served on the...

Legg Slashes CEO's, Founder's Salaries.
July 7, 2008... In light of Legg Mason's recent struggles and dropping stock price, the company has slashed the pay of CEO Mark Fetting and its founder Raymond "Chip" Mason. Fetting's compensation package was listed at $5 million a year ago when he was a...

Funds Become Wrappers For ETFs in 401(k)s.
July 7, 2008... Hennion and Walch, a small New Jersey fund firm, is introducing ETFs into 401k plans by wrapping them in mutual funds. Chief Investment Officer Kevin Mahn said the SmarthGrowth ETF Lipper Optimal Conservative Index, SmarthGrowth ETF Lipper...

Private Equity Infusion Could Help Banks.
July 7, 2008... Cash-strapped banks are hoping the Federal Reserve will loosen restrictions keeping private-equity firms from giving them capital. "This would be a bit of a sea change for the Fed," Gregory Lyons, head of the financial services practice at...

Sober Wake-Up Call At Morningstar Conference.(Conference news)(Brief article)
July 7, 2008... Morningstar's Investor Conference in Chicago may have echoed with many of the same old solutions of the past, but for those who listened carefully to Mohamed El-Erian's message, "This time it's different." El-Erian, who is co-chief...

Going Green Can Save Fund Firms Millions.
July 7, 2008... In November of last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed a rule to decrease the prospectuses of mutual fund firms to summaries of around three pages that could be accessed online, Mortgage Banking reports. According to a report...

The Mighty Baby Boomers.
July 7, 2008... Baby Boomers now comprise half to three-quarters of the clients of fee-based advisers and independent reps, a new wealth report found. Understanding the changing composition of the American consumer can go a long way toward establishing a...

Equity Mutual Funds Slip 15 Basis Points In 2Q08, But Slide 10.09% in First Half: Still, Investors Hold Onto Faith in Fed Rates, Strong Earnings Results.
July 14, 2008... Mutual fund investors held resilient in the second quarter of the year, "shrugging off weakness in the labor and housing markets and even ignoring the rising cost of oil and gas," announced Tom Roseen, senior research analyst for Lipper, during...

Money Market Funds Called Upon to Make Non-Public SEC Filings: Subprime Exposure Weighs On Activist's Mind.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
July 14, 2008... How serious are liquidity problems with money market mutual funds? Mercer Bullard, founder and president of Fund Democracy, believes they're serious enough to warrant an immediate rule requiring money market mutual funds to make non-public...

Tax Warning to Hedge Funds Heading Overseas To Avoid Subprime Risks.
July 14, 2008... The ongoing credit crisis saga has taken a tremendous toll on hedge funds due to their exposure to structured mortgage-backed assets-and for those heading or parsing trades overseas to avoid U.S. taxes: Beware. The contracting demand for...

Give Mutual Fund Investors The Gold Card' Treatment.
July 14, 2008... Get a little imagination, guys. It never ceases to surprise me how uninspired most financial services, and in particular, mutual fund, advertisements are. Only two come to mind as standouts: AXA's ads with the proverbial 800-pound gorilla...

Another Rough Month for Financial Services Jobs.
July 14, 2008... For professionals on Wall Street, the June jobs number confirmed what many already knew: The financial services segment of the U.S. economy lost jobs last month. Some observers say the pace of jobs lost on Wall Street could exceed all other...

Executive Moves.
July 14, 2008... Petrozzo, DePoalo New CIOs at Fidelity Daniel Petrozzo has been named new chief information officer at Fidelity Investments, and Ronald E. DePoalo is now CIO of the firm's institutional products division. Petrozzo is the former...

First-Half Losses for Hedge Funds Leads to Second-Half Worries.
July 14, 2008... The credit crisis continues to hit the $2 trillion hedge fund industry hard (see related story, page one). More funds have left the industry, and fewer have entered, over the past six months than collectively last year. In April and May it...

Week in Review.
July 14, 2008... Subprime Debt Too Hot to Handle for Ratings Agencies In a report the Securities and Exchange Commission released last week onwhat went wrong at the ratings agencies responsible for grading instruments tied to subprime debt, the Securities...

Regulators Aim to Stop Spread of Rumors: SEC, FINRA, NYSE Regulation Step Up Enforcement.
July 21, 2008... Federal regulators are cracking down on the potential spread of false and misleading rumors that could potentially affect market conditions. While rumor mongering is not a widespread problem in the financial industry, a few high-profile...

Hey, Boomers, Surf's Up! AXA Equitable Launches Retiree Lifestyle Website.
July 21, 2008... Don't just retire. "Reengage, reinvigorate, redefine, rejuvenate." That's the inspirational message at MyRetirementShop.com, a new, all-in-one website for the "at retirement" generation that AXA Equitable Life Insurance launched last...

DTCC, Swift Partner on Alternative Messaging.(Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.)(Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication )
July 21, 2008... The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) are working together to introduce 12 interoperable XML-based message formats to the alternative investment community. ...

Advisers Increase Clients' Cash Exposure.
July 21, 2008... Bad news for the mutual fund industry. The volatile market has stymied the "long haul" game; an increasing number of financial advisers are moving larger portions of their clients' assets into cash positions. "When you see the market...

Europe to Make UCITS Yet More Efficient.
July 21, 2008... The European Union proposed a new set of rules Thursday to make Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) even more efficient by eliminating additional regulatory hurdles. Most notably, the rules- which will...

Executive Moves.
July 21, 2008... Callan Joins Credit Suisse As Head of Hedge Funds Erin Callan, who was recently ousted from her position as Lehman Brothers chief financial officer, will begin a new role as head of Credit Suisse's global hedge fund business on Sept. 2....

Where Has All the Alpha Gone?(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... The small group of money mangers who possess the ability to outperform the market has virtually disappeared, according to a new study, "False Discoveries in Mutual Fund Performance: Measuring Luck in Estimating Alphas," in which the researchers...

Platform Upgrades Help Fee-Based Advice Surge.
July 21, 2008... The growing popularity of fee-based advice is prompting mutual fund companies and other investment platform providers to upgrade the capabilities they offer advisers. Fidelity Investments is rolling out a product that allows registered...

Ameriprise Acquires J&W Seligman for $440M.
July 21, 2008... Ameriprise Financial finalized a $440 million deal to purchase J&W Seligman in the fourth quarter. The addition of Seligman will provide Ameriprise with additional outlets to sell its mutual funds and further improve its hedge fund business....

State Street CEO: Growth To Slow, But Pipeline Solid.
July 21, 2008... State Street Corp. believes market conditions will make it difficult for his Boston company to maintain its strong second-quarter growth, but he hopes to weather the second half by focusing on core businesses, cutting expenses and attracting...

Federated Acquires Assets Of Prudent Bear Funds.(Brief article)
July 21, 2008... President and CEO of Federated Investors, J. Christopher Donahue, recently announced Federated's acquisition of the Prudent Bear and Prudent Global Income Funds from David W. Tice & Associates at an initial price of $43 million with future...