Money Management Executive articles from June 2004

Money Management Executive archives from June 2004

NASD Issues First Fine For Annuity Market Timing.(National Association of Securities Dealers)
June 7, 2004... Davenport & Co., a Richmond, Va.-based brokerage firm, market timed variable annuity sub-accounts on behalf of two of its hedge fund clients, the National Association of Securities Dealers charged last week, ordering Davenport to pay $450,000...

PIMCO Vindicated in Fund Timing Probe: Affiliates Fork Over $18 Million for Misdeeds.(Pacific Investment Management Co.)
June 7, 2004... Score one for the fund managers. Bond fund giant PIMCO is off the hook for alleged trading infractions, as New Jersey regulators assault on the fund complex proved to be a rush to judgment. New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey said...

Lieberman Bill Looks Out for Average Joe: Seeks Clearer Disclosure, Prominent Investor Role at SEC.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Joseph Lieberman)
June 7, 2004... Former vice presidential candidate Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) is asking lawmakers to create a new SEC division dedicated to representing investors in the agencys policymaking process, as well as require fund firms to provide...

Mutual Funds Celebrate 80th Anniversary.
June 7, 2004... Despite the pall that has fallen over the mutual fund industry amid discoveries of market timing, late trading, disclosure of non-public fund information and inflated commissions to brokers, the industry actually has something to celebrate. The...

SEC Requires Funds to Disclose Breakpoints, Adopt Code of Ethics.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission recently voted to require mutual funds to disclose breakpoint discounts in their prospectuses and to adopt codes of ethics. On each measure, the vote was 4-0. Funds will now be required to provide...

SEC Sends Wells Notice to Empire Financial Holding.(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... The Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly planning to launch an enforcement action against Empire Financial Holding Co. and its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gagne. Empire, which confirmed receiving a Wells notice of...

Hancock Separate Account Joins Oppenheimer Lineup.(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... Oppenheimer Asset Management has added the Dividend Performers investment strategy to its separate account consulting program. The strategy is managed by Sovereign Asset Management, a subsidiary of John Hancock Advisers, recently bought by...

Executive Moves.(Wilmingtons Wealth Services Division)
June 7, 2004... CheckFree Names Mrak VP of Product Management Joseph Mrak III, a 10-year industry veteran specializing in technology, has joined CheckFree Investments as vice president of product management. Before co-founding Placemark Investments, a...

PwC Sounds Battle Cry for Fund Transparency.
June 7, 2004... When it comes to mutual fund reporting, transparency is the name of the game. Given the current regulatory landscape brought on by the upheaval at some of the nations biggest fund shops, it is now more crucial than ever for companies to...

Spitzer Warns of History Repeating Itself.(Eliot Spitzer)
June 7, 2004... NEW YORK - In between good-natured gags about the angularity of his jaw line and quotes from Homer Simpson, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer told financial journalists here that despite record-breaking fines and penalties, the financial...

Daiwa Securities to Offer Separate Accounts in Japan.
June 14, 2004... Daiwa Securities, Japan's second-largest brokerage firm, will offer separately managed accounts beginning next month with the aim of capturing another 30 billion to 50 billion yen, or $270 million to $450 million, from high-net-worth clients....

NASD to Bring Wave of Supervisory Cases.(National Association of Securities Dealers)
June 14, 2004... The NASD is poised to unleash a wave of enforcement actions against mutual fund firms for failure to supervise and implement systems and policies sufficient in preventing market timing and late trading, according to sources familiar with the...

Fido Unveils $70 Million Retirement Product.(Fidelity Investments)
June 14, 2004... NEW YORK - The face of distribution for retirement savings accounts is changing, as Fidelity Investments on Wednesday launched a $70 million product initiative aimed at helping Baby Boomers better manage their finances while making the...

Pioneer Targets Micro-Plan Market.(Pioneer Investment Management Inc.)
June 14, 2004... Pioneer Investments of Boston is carving out a deeper and broader niche for itself within the micro-plan retirement market, which includes sole proprietors, consultants, very small businesses and professional practices that employ up to five...

Geek Securities Charged With Late Trading, Timing.(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... The SEC has charged Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geek Securities with civil securities fraud for both market timing and late trading in mutual funds. Also named in the suit was a subsidiary, Geek Advisors, Inc., President Kautilya (Tony) Sharma and...

Smith Barney Nixed Timing Deal in 2001.(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Citigroup subsidiary Smith Barney said it put the kibosh on market-timing activity it found in one of its funds in its Consulting Group Capital Markets Funds back in 2001, according to a recent regulatory filing. The firm said that...

Putnam Institutional Chief To Resign by Month's End.(Putnam Investments Inc.: John Brown)
June 14, 2004... John Brown, Putnam's senior managing director and head of institutional management, is resigning and will leave the firm at the end of the month. Brown, who reports directly to CEO Ed Haldeman, helped spearhead the firm's fight to stop bleeding...

Executive Moves.
June 14, 2004... Waddell & Reed Promotes Sundeen, Hires Connealy Kansas-based Waddell & Reed Financial said Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John E. Sundeen, Jr. has been promoted to executive vice president and chief administrative officer...

Hancock Calls on Sponsors to Simplify Retirement Planning.(John Hancock Financial Services Inc.)
June 14, 2004... Simplification of the retirement planning process is needed, as the average expected age of retirement continues to jump and investors are increasingly stressed they might have to endure a major lifestyle change after retiring, according to a...

Asset Management M&A Activity Heating Up: One-Third of Private Banks Seeking Acquisitions.
June 14, 2004... The asset management industry is gearing up for a wave of merger and acquisition activity, as a number of private banks are seeking purchases, according to a recent report from KPMG. The research released by KPMG shows that a third of...

Federated Registers its First Closed-End Fund.(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... Federated Investors of Pittsburgh filed a registration statement with the SEC Sept. 18 to launch its first ever closed-end fund, the Federated International Small Company Opportunity Fund. The fund would be the only small company closed-end...

SMAs Conflicted on Fund Scandal Fallout.(separately managed accounts)
June 21, 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...

Executive Moves.
June 21, 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...

Commissioner GlassmanNot in Favor of All Reforms.(Securities and Exchange Commissioner Cynthia Glassman )
June 21, 2004... SEC Commissioner Cynthia Glassman last week said she is not sold on the agency's rule proposals requiring an independent chairman and the implementation of a mandatory redemption fee. The SEC has been entertaining a number of ideas to...

Stevens Says Plenty of Blame to go Around: ICI Prez Calls For Scrutiny of Intermediaries, Hedge Funds.(Imperial Chemical Industries PLC:Paul Schott Stevens )
June 21, 2004... ICI President Paul Schott Stevens said last week that his agency is firmly behind reform in the industry and called on the SEC to "administer strong medicine to prevent trading abuses in the future." Stevens did not limit his comments to...

Overseas SMAs Face Growing Pains: Australia, Japan Best-Positioned for Success.(separately managed accounts)
June 21, 2004... Separately managed accounts, considered our nation's hippest new investment product, slowly have been gaining traction overseas as Japanese brokerages have begun to dip their toes in the pool. Recently, Daiwa Securities, Japan's...

AIM Trimark Peddles Cloned Funds in U.S.
June 21, 2004... Having dodged the U.S. mutual fund industry scandal and a mutual fund share pricing problem of its own back home, AIM Trimark Investments of Toronto has ventured into the U.S. asset management industry for the very first time. AIM Trimark is...

News Flash- Former Putnam Chief Exec To Receive Deferred $78M.(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... The former CEO of Putnam Investments, Lawrence J. Lasser, has settled his severance package dispute with the company and will receive $78 million from the parent firm, Marsh & McLennan. The company had charged that Lasser was responsible...

News Flash- SIA President Warns Regs Will Boost Ops Budgets.(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... Securities Industry Association President Mark Lacritz warned that the mutual fund and corporate scandals and resulting new compliance requirements have put both technology and financial services firms in a touch spot, he told 700 delegates at...

Schwab CEO Predicts Scandal Will Deepen.(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck said he expects scandals afflicting the financial services industry to continue. "There will continue to be new investigations and new revelations. There are still things to find in this industry," Pottruck...

Executive Moves.
June 21, 2004... Janus Hires Zimmerman to Head Institutional Sales Janus Capital Group has named John Zimmerman, 41, the new head of its institutional sales team. Zimmerman assumed the responsibilities previously held by Lars Soderberg, who recently agreed...

Is The Scandal Over Yet? Not a Chance.(Securities fraud)
June 21, 2004... The notion that the fund scandal is all but over has been gaining steam in the general press and among some in the industry recently, but the reality is that while it has been a long, hard nine months, the mutual fund industry is far from out...

Former SEC Heads Cowboy Up on Fund Governance: Urge Regulators to Require Independent Chairmen.
June 21, 2004... They were seven and they fought like seven hundred. That was the famous tag line of the classic 1960 western film "The Magnificent Seven," a tale about a septet of mercenaries called on to protect the inhabitants of a small village from being...

Outsourcing Does Not Mean Transfer of Risk.
June 21, 2004... This October is the deadline for funds to comply with the Securities and Exchange Commission's new Rule 38a-1, requiring all registered investment companies and investment advisors to designate a chief compliance officer. The new CCO will be...

Scandal Boosting Schwab's Custody Business.(Charles Schwab Corp.)
June 21, 2004... Schwab Institutional's assets under custody grew 4.5% in the first quarter, and the company's president said the industry's scandals and investigations played a role in some of the asset gains. "I think the issues with scandals and the...

SEC Planning to Charge Insurers For Trading Deals.(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... WASHINGTON - Insurance companies are soon to find enforcement actions against them aired for all to see. The Securities and Exchange Commission is working on cases in which insurers made special arrangements for market timing, according to Ari...

Market Confusion Slows Mutual Fund Flows in May.
June 28, 2004... Investors, mystified about current events and the seesaw stock markets of the past few months, invested less money in equity funds in May than in any month since April 2003, research firm Lipper reported last week. The equity fund inflows...

Pilgrim Baxter Pays $100M for Timing Woes: Firm Founders Face Criminal Fraud Charges.
June 28, 2004... There was no place of refuge for tainted mutual fund shop Pilgrim Baxter & Associates, as the company last Monday agreed to a $100 million settlement with regulators for engaging in abusive trading practices. Under the terms of the deal, a...

State Tax Laws Blocking 529 Growth.
June 28, 2004... Some states are unfairly discriminating against investors choosing to invest in 529 college savings plans outside of the state in which they reside, creating mounting problems for the industry, according to a recent white paper by the College...

SEC Strikes Down Fund Leadership: Boardroom Bigs to Be Independent.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
June 28, 2004... For mutual funds, it was the shot heard round the world. A heated debate over whether mutual funds should have an independent chairman came to a head Wednesday, as the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to approve a new rule mandating...

House Introduces Own Bill Along Lines of Reform Act.(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... Rep. Paul Gillmore (R-Ohio) has introduced a companion bill in the House to the Mutual Fund Reform Act sponsored by Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) in the Senate. A companion bill is similar or identical to another piece of legislation...

IRS Expected to Issue Guidance on 403(b) Plans.(Internal Revenue Service)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... The Internal Revenue Service is expected to issue guidance on how to bring 403(b) plan regulation in line with the 2001 tax law changes. Sources say this will be the first time that the IRS has made sweeping comprehensive changes to these plan...

Executive Moves.(Appointments)
June 28, 2004... Mallozzi Joins Prudential As Senior Vice President Prudential Financial subsidiary Prudential Retirement has tapped former Aetna and Hartford Life Insurance executive James J. Mallozzi as its new senior vice president of marketing and...

Phillips Sees Big Changes Ahead for Funds.(Interview)
June 28, 2004... Morningstar Managing Director Don Phillips has been a visible industry figure since the scandal broke, calling for investors to avoid certain shops entangled in the scandal as well as urging the industry to adopt several reforms. MME Associate...