Money Management Executive articles from June 2008

Money Management Executive archives from June 2008

SEC Regulatory Outlook Looks Iffy for Rest of 2008: But Prospectus Profile, International Accounting, XBRL Have Hope of Passage.
June 2, 2008... Many mutual fund industry analysts are skeptical that the Securities and Exchange Commission will take final action on any of its outstanding proposals this year, but if it does, the summary prospectus and XBRL tagging are likely to top the...

Oakmark Wins Fee Battle: Ruling Seen as Victorious Precedent.
June 2, 2008... While not exactly a national victory for the mutual fund industry, a recent court ruling regarding "excessive fees" could set a strong precedent for further disputes. In the case Jerry N. Jones v. Harris Associates L.P., the U.S. Court of...

New ETFs Overweight Top Revenue-Generators.
June 2, 2008... His firm may sponsor only three small exchange-traded funds right now, but if Sean O'Hara, president of RevenueShares Investor Services of Paoli, Pa., has his druthers, there'll be revenue-weighted ETFs in every investor's portfolio someday....

Rolling Out the 6th Annual Fund Operations Awards.
June 2, 2008... Welcome to Money Management Executive's 6th Annual Fund Operations Awards. You can now find entry forms and detailed guidelines at our website, www.mmexecutive.com. This year, we have also added a fourth category of New Media,...

Senate Weighs SEC Nominees: 2 Dems, 1 Rep.
June 2, 2008... This Tuesday, June 3, the Senate Banking Committee will consider three nominations to the Securities and Exchange Commission, possibly paving the way for a number of mutual fund measures to be decided upon. Currently, there are two...

Fidelity Looks Eastward At Potential China JVs.
June 2, 2008... Despite strict guidelines and barriers within China, which tend to turn off global fund houses from conducting business, Fidelity International is ready and willing to pursue joint ventures there sometime in the near future. Since 2002, a...

Online Advisers Look Far Beyond Mutual Funds.
June 2, 2008... Advisers are routinely using non-industry websites, particularly YouTube, and bank online in larger numbers than expected, says a new study tracking e-business habits. The findings have implications for asset managers across the industry. ...

SEC May Cap, Split 12b-1's.
June 2, 2008... In what some in the industry are heralding as a backhanded acknowledgement of 12b-1 fees, the Securities and Exchange Commission is considering putting a cap on the controversial level-loads. But some industry executives are balking at the...

Executive Moves.(Nancy Morris appointed as vice president at Allianz Global Investors of America)(Marie Rice appointed as vice president at LIMRA International Inc.)(Jack Rivkin retires from Neuberger Berman LLC )
June 2, 2008... Allianz Global Investors Taps Nancy Morris as VP Nancy Morris recently decided to leave her role as secretary of the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to become an executive vice president at Allianz Global Investors of America....

A Mass (Affluent) Retirement Market.
June 2, 2008... WASHINGTON-Mutual fund companies and their attendant banking channel need to engage the mass affluent, rather than simply chasing the wealthy, if they seriously want to develop their retirement businesses. Kenneth Lewis, Bank of America's...

SSgA Launches Spider U.,' Reveals Active ETF, Advisers' Attitudes: Majority Perceive ETFs as Most Innovative Investment.
June 9, 2008... NEW YORK-Although the summer has only just begun, it was "Back to School" last week here at a State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) seminar for financial advisers, on the finer points of exchange-traded funds. The ETF marketplace, now with...

Plain Vanilla' Funds In Investors' Plain Sight: Subpar Recovery, Taxes Offer Plenty of Opportunities.
June 9, 2008... NEW YORK-As the turbulent economy begins to calm down, investors will likely gravitate toward index-based, middle-of-the-road mutual funds, opening the door for opportunists to sweep up bargains, industry experts say. And the safer, the better....

403(b)s Brace for Big Changes: With New Regs Still Six Months Out, Sponsors Have Work to Do.
June 9, 2008... Big changes are brewing in the 403(b) world. For the first time in 40 years, the Internal Revenue Service is mandating new requirements that aim to make the plans more like 401(k)s. For many 403(b) providers, the biggest challenge won't be...

Trust Providers Broaden Adviser-Based Services.
June 9, 2008... Mutual fund and other financial services firms are making it easier for their investment advisers to address a broader array of clients' trust needs, ranging from estate planning to philanthropic giving. Pershing LLC, a Jersey City unit of...

Not Quite Sold on Gold.(Brief article)
June 9, 2008... Market turbulence has been driving many investors to blindly rush to gold, but Franklin Allen and Jeremy Sigel, both Wharton professors at the University of Pennsylvania, have been speaking out about the risks of investing in gold, or even...

Executive Moves.(Ezra Zask appointed as director at LECG)(Ronald P. Fiske Jr. appointed as vice president at Institutional Wealth Services)(Tony Parkin appointed as vice president at Bellatore LLC)
June 9, 2008... Ezra Zask Leaves Company He Founded for LECG Role Ezra Zask, the founder and president of Ezra Zask Advisors LLC is leaving his own financial advisory services company in order to become a director for LECG in New York. "His skills as...

The Hidden Cost of Back-End Fees, Commissions.
June 9, 2008... A Strategic Insight report released last week points out that traditional point-of-sale commissions for mutual fund sales are close to being extinct. Of all the sales in 2007, 60% occurred without any front-end loads. "High commissions...

JPM Chase Hustles On Asset Management Growth.
June 9, 2008... The $1.6 trillion JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Tuesday it will hire 300 employees over the next five years to expand its fund services operations in Boston, and has started offering its Chase Strategic Portfolio, an advisory program for retail...

Big Brown Financiers Race For Big Win on The Street.(Brief article)
June 9, 2008... As Big Brown was preparing last week to get ready for his big day Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, his owners and financiers are already counting their predicted earnings, as well as forging ahead with the $100 million seed capital for a hedge...

Week in Review.
June 9, 2008... Fidelity Axes N.H. Workers Fidelity Investments has laid off some of its 5,700 employees in Merrimack, N.H., according to an Associated Press report on deadline, confirmed by Fidelity Spokeswoman Anne Crowley, who said the layoffs occurred...

Lower Taxes, Consumer Protection Among Obama's Promises.
June 9, 2008... Asset management executives should have no illusion about the direction Sen. Barack Obama would take financial services policy if he were elected president. The presumptive Democratic nominee backs a detailed list of programs aimed at...

McCain Eyes Mortgage-Abuse Taskforce, FHA Role.
June 9, 2008... WASHINGTON-On the presidential campaign trail, Sen. John McCain's financial services agenda has hardly been front-and-center. After months of near silence on the housing crisis, the Arizona Republican raised the issue in March, yet he...

UCITS Next Great Hope for U.S. Firms in Europe.
June 9, 2008... NEW YORK-Days before the European Union celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Euro last week, Dechert LLP held a widely popular seminar here on the how-to's of Undertakings for Collective Investment Trusts, or UCITS, which have been growing at...

Board Portals Increase Freedom, Efficiency: Instead of Lugging Around Huge Packets, Directors Can View Materials from a Computer.
June 16, 2008... The passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act dramatically increased the volume of materials corporate executives and boards have to review, and staying on top of this mountain of paperwork can be overwhelming. Board materials in the financial...

College Savings Plan Gets Smarter: Law Change Allows NY 529 Plan to Welcome Contributions from Friends, Family.
June 16, 2008... Friends and family members of New York college-bound students can now make contributions to a student's 529 college savings plan, thanks to a change in New York State law that mirrors similar programs in other states. With $8.3 billion in...

SEC's IT Catch-up Like Turning a Battleship.
June 16, 2008... Leading-edge technology has never been a hallmark of the Securities and Exchange Commission. While investment management has gone hand-in-hand with cutting-edge technology for the past quarter century, information technology typically accounted...

Going For The Top.
June 16, 2008... When News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch speaks, we in the financial publishing world listen, just as fund managers hang on words from Warren Buffett, Bill Gross or Peter Lynch. And while we don't profess to be The Wall Street...

Putnam Picks Next CEO.(Robert L. Reynolds appointed as chief executive officer)(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... In a conference call Thursday morning, Boston-based Putnam Investments announced that Robert L. "Bob" Reynolds will succeed Charles E. "Ed" Haldeman to become the firm's president and chief executive officer. Haldeman plans to stay on board...

Executive Moves.
June 16, 2008... Peter Suhr Joins CFG As Enterprise EVP Peter Suhr, a well-known executive in the annuity industry, has accepted a position as executive vice president of enterprise solutions with Capital Fulfillment Group. In this position, Suhr's primary...

Low-Fidelity: Weak Results in 08.
June 16, 2008... Fidelity Investments is having one of its weakest first five months in recent history. Only 39% of Fidelity's equity funds are in the company of the top half of their peers, whereas 64% were a year ago, according to Morningstar. While it...

Iron Out Confusing' Regs: New York Fed Chief.
June 16, 2008... NEW YORK-Timothy Geithner, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, called for substantial reforms to the structure of the regulatory system of the U.S. "Our current system has evolved into a confusing mix of diffused...

Morningstar to Expand Focus on Professionals.(Financial report)(Brief article)
June 16, 2008... While Morningstar certainly has carved out its niche and made a name for itself arming individual investors with mutual fund data and insight, the company plans to increase its focus on financial advisers and institutions, or the "pros" eager...

Week in Review.(Samuel Israel III under investigation)(Global Macro)(foreign curriencies)
June 16, 2008... FBI Investigating Suicide of Hedge Fund Criminal Israel Instead of reporting to Ayer, Mass., federal prison on Monday to serve a 20-year term for defrauding $450 million from investors in the failed Bayou hedge fund, ex-CEO Samuel Israel...

Hedge Funds Balance Secrecy, Transparency: In Search for Alpha, Investors Ramp Up Due Diligence.
June 23, 2008... NEW YORK-Hedge funds are notorious for being secretive, private investment pools, but the time has finally come for them to become more transparent in order to capture the billions of dollars floating around alpha-seeking institutional...

Invesco Files to Offer Mortgage Securities Real Estate Trust: New Public REIT Expands Offerings, Enhances Evolutionary Efforts.
June 23, 2008... Invesco, the global investment management firm with its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta, is continuing its efforts to evolve into a bigger global power brand with both diverse and expansive investment offerings. Parent company Invesco Ltd. is...

In the Future, Please Call Him Charles' Recent Schwab Advertising Campaign: Targets Professional Audience.
June 23, 2008... By now, investors are accustomed to the creative, informal "Talk to Chuck" advertisements of Charles Schwab & Co. in which animated, yet somewhat realistic, images of people gripe about trying to get through to other brokers, but take heart at...

Industry Eyes Low, or No, Profile at 2008 Conventions.(Honest Leadership and Open Government Act)
June 23, 2008... With the two presidential candidates casting lobbyists, and much of the industry, in a negative light, they are taking a cautious approach to the convention revelry and keeping a lower profile. The rules of the game have changed since the...

Death Knell for Dominance In 401(k)s, Edelman Says.
June 23, 2008... The Supreme Court's recent decision in LaRue v DeWolff to permit workers in 401(k) plans to sue administrators for high fees will inevitably lead to lower fees-and the end of the retail mutual fund industry's dominance of the market. That's the...

Executive Moves.
June 23, 2008... Putnam Investments Selects Bob Reynolds as CEO Putnam Investments has recruited Robert L. "Bob" Reynolds, former vice chairman of Fidelity Investments, as president and chief executive officer. He succeeds Charles E. "Ed" Haldeman, who...

Eaton Gets Break on Auction-Rate Securities.(liquidity protected preferred shares)(Brief article)
June 23, 2008... Eaton Vance has received a no-action letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission that will permit it to provide a new auction-rate security known as Liquidity Protected Preferred Shares. Unlike other auction-rate preferred shares,...

SEC Set for Busy Summer.
June 23, 2008... The Securities and Exchange Commission just released its full summer agenda, and according to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, it will be extremely busy in the coming months. The agenda for all of 2008 will include "quite a laundry list of...

FBI Agents Arrest Two Bear Hedge Managers.
June 23, 2008... Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, former Bear Stearns headge fund managers, are the first two criminal indictment casualties of the subprime crisis, with the FBI having arrested them at their homes on Thursday. The U.S. Attorney General's...

Hedge Fund Manager's $25M Estate to Settle.
June 23, 2008... The family of deceased Circle T Partners hedge fund manager and frequent CNBC guest Seth Tobias is said to be near a settlement regarding his $25 million estate. Since 44-year-old Tobias's mysterious death last September, his family and his...

Obama to Have Uncle Sam Chip in for Retirement.(Brief article)
June 23, 2008... Approximately 78 million working Americans are currently working jobs that do not provide them with a retirement plan; however, Barack Obama is looking to change this predicament, according to a report by CNNMoney.com. Recently while...

Everything Old (Typeface) Is New Again at JPMorgan.
June 23, 2008... As JPMorgan Chase begins to remove the Bear Stearns name from its buildings, the firm is taking the opportunity to enhance its own brand identity. JPMorgan plans to give separate but similar identities to its retail and institutional...

Charles Schwab Launches Index Target-Date Funds.
June 23, 2008... Charles Schwab Trust Co. is planning indexed target-date collective trust funds, the Schwab Indexed Retirement Trust Funds with target dates spanning 2010-2050, for retirement plans. There is no minimum balance requirement for the Schwab...

Forensic Testing: Investment Managers' Cop on the Beat.
June 23, 2008... "There is always a clue." - Gil Grissom, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Just as the forensic investigators on "CSI" usually catch the criminal, forensic accountants can help resolve business disputes and cases of fraud. But both of...

Fund Administrator Automates More Customer Functions to Balance Growth.(ALPS Fund Services )(Company overview)
June 23, 2008... The demands on investment management companies to deliver timely information have never been more stringent than they are today. Regulators from various countries are imposing greater controls and more frequent compliance checks. Asset managers...

Distribution Road Hits Superhighway: Wholesaling Getting a Whole Lot More Sophisticated.
June 30, 2008... WELLESLEY, Mass.-Gone are the supposed days when wholesalers stood around conference booths all day, cavalierly handing out golf balls, or taking brokers out for cigars and whiskey. To get through the new "Fund Selection Unit" gatekeepers at...

Hedge Funds Fear New SEC Regulations: Managers Can Run, But Not Hide From Best Practices, Culture of Compliance.
June 30, 2008... NEW YORK-The freewheeling days for hedge funds may be numbered. Depending on who gets elected to the White House in November, the next Securities and Exchange Commission may push to impose additional regulations on hedge funds that, many...

Hedge Fund Launches Fall to Eight-Year Low.
June 30, 2008... WASHINGTON-Volatile market conditions and the credit crisis have put the hard brakes on new hedge funds. The number of hedge funds launched in the first quarter was the lowest for a quarter since 2000, while fund liquidations increased from a...

Samuel Israel III: The Great Hedge Fund Escape Artist.
June 30, 2008... "I cheated my investors because I was afraid to admit my failure. I did not want the world to think I was not good enough and I did not want my family to see me as a failure." Those are some of the choice, cowardly words from Samuel Israel...

UBS Faces Dark Days.
June 30, 2008... Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Gavin has charged UBS AG's UBS Securities, LLC and UBS Financial Services with fraud and dishonest conduct regarding the firms retail sales of auction-rate securities. "The game was...

Executive Moves.
June 30, 2008... Lundquist Chosen as Head Of JPMorgan RIA Channel JPMorgan Funds recently tapped Steve Lundquist as head of the Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) Channel. This title assigns Lundquist to oversee the sales and national accounts teams and to...

SEC Gives Managers of Money Funds Freer Hand.
June 30, 2008... In light of the crisis of confidence in rating agencies following the subprime crisis, the Securities and Exchange Commission will diminish the importance of money market fund managers' reliance on such agencies when investing in short-term...

Some Funds Don't Follow Eaton's Auction-Rate Lead.
June 30, 2008... Lately, many frustrated preferred investors have searched for an opportunity to cash in on the subprime crisis and move on. Responding directly to investor woes, several closed-end fund companies like Nuveen Investments and Eaton Vance have...

Week in Review.
June 30, 2008... Morningstar Builds Up Adviser Workstation Morningstar has upgraded its investment planning site, Advisor Workstation Office Edition. Of primary focus are the additions to the asset allocation and portfolio construction functions. Ibbotson...

JPMorgan Expands OTC Collateral Management.
June 30, 2008... JPMorgan Chase has expanded its collateral management service for over-the-counter derivatives by adding automated reconciliation through the triResolve solution of Stockholm-based TriOptima. "Trade reconciliation is challenging in the OTC...