Money Management Executive articles from May 2006

Money Management Executive archives from May 2006

Fund Assets Projected to Reach $11 Trillion by 2010.(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... Between the end of 2000 and the end of 2005, assets in U.S. mutual funds swelled from $6.96 trillion to $8.91 trillion, according to data from the Investment Company Institute. Compounded annually, that's growth of a handsome 5.1%, and if the...

Supreme Court Hears Putnam Case: Decision Could Determine Who Can Sue Funds.(Kircher v. Putnam Funds )(securities fraud case)(Case overview)
May 8, 2006... On Wall Street, they say, a hold is as good as a buy, and in the coming weeks a Supreme Court judge might decide whether that's a fact of law, too. A class-action lawsuit that's been rattling around in the nation's legal system for nearly...

Hedge Funds Taking Steadier Approach.(industry forecast)
May 8, 2006... NEW YORK - Call it growing pains. As much as hedge funds have impacted the investment community in recent years, the increased interest in, and significant inflows to, hedge funds from institutional investors have changed the way the $1.1...

Pioneer Shifts Acquisition Strategy.(Pioneer Investments of Boston acquires Vanderbilt Capital Advisors)
May 8, 2006... Pioneer Investments of Boston is acquiring yet another asset management firm. But this time, rather than purchasing another mutual fund company or fund family, Pioneer will acquire Vanderbilt Capital Advisors of New York, an investment firm...

T. Rowe Price Reports Record 1Q Revenue.
May 8, 2006... T. Rowe Price took in record revenue of $429 million in the first quarter, earning a net income of $116.7 million, up 24% from $94 million in the first quarter of 2005. Earnings per share were 84 cents, up nearly 22% from earnings of 69 cents a...

Janus' 1Q Earnings Rise 80% on Intech's Strength.
May 8, 2006... Janus Capital continues to reap the benefit of its Intech unit, as the quantitative investment group attracted $4 billion in new money in the first quarter, bringing Intech's total assets to $50 billion. Those inflows helped push the Denver...

Target-Date Funds Get More Aggressive.(investment increases)(Brief article)
May 8, 2006... At the request of investors, fund companies are increasing the equity exposure in their target-date, or lifecycle, funds, Fidelity and Vanguard being two of the biggest firms to do so recently. Baby Boomers and financial advisers realize...

Executive Moves.(Glenn Richter joins Nuveen Investments)(Stephen J. Kneeley joins Brandywine Global Investment Management)(Sarah Davidoff joins Stroock & Stroock & Lavan)
May 8, 2006... Nuveen Hires Richter for Chief Administrative Post Glenn Richter has been named chief administrative officer of Nuveen Investments, a newly established position that he will assume at the end of the month, created as a result of Nuveen's...

Big Funds Squeeze Out Small Shops: Well-Articulated Investment Stories Make the Difference.(mutual fund industry)
May 8, 2006... When Neil Hennessy launched the Hennessy Funds 10 years ago, he knew that to stack up against the 8,000 competitors already in the game, he'd need to come up with a unique investment story. "The challenges to entry in 1996 were the same as...

Funds Need Better Handle on Product Profitability.
May 8, 2006... Mutual fund and other asset management firms need to do a better job of analyzing the profitability of products, channels, clients and back-office systems to improve operating margins, according to a report from Capco Institute of New York....

Marsh CEO Says Outlook For Putnam is Positive.(Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.)(Michael Cherkasky)(Putnam Investments Inc.)(Interview)(Brief article)
May 15, 2006... Putnam Investments is poised to recover after suffering $6.6 billion in outflows in the first quarter, according to Michael Cherkasky, chief executive officer of parent company, Marsh & McLennan Cos. The outflows aren't over quite yet,...

What's Next for Indy Chair? Maybe Nothing: Whatever SEC Decides, Rule May Still Be Doomed.(Securities and Exchange Commission)
May 15, 2006... When the Securities and Exchange Commission posts its independent chairman rule for a second time, it will do so amid an industry milieu that is greatly unlike the one it met two years ago. That fact, combined with a number of other...

SEC Spotlights Investor Education: Everybody Loses When Scammers Hit.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(risk education)
May 15, 2006... Some investors just can't resist the next big thing, even when there's a chance they'll lose everything, so the Securities and Exchange Commission has been operating fake Internet scams to teach those would-be victims a lesson. "These...

Next XBRL Frontier: Fund Disclosures.(eXtensible Business Reporting Language)(Securities and Exchange Commission)
May 15, 2006... One year into the Securities and Exchange Commission's XBRL pilot program, participants say it's not as scary as it might sound. But, they warn, it's not exactly a cinch, either. "It's not easy, it's not cheap, and as for the tools...

Funds May Be Required to Report Suspicious Activity.(United States. Department of the Treasury)
May 15, 2006... The U.S. Treasury has proposed a rule that all mutual fund companies be required to report any suspicious financial transactions, hoping to net drug dealers, terrorists and money launderers. The new rule would require mutual funds to file such...

Commission Sanctions Fund Administrator, Exec.(Securities and Exchange Commission)( Unified Fund Services)
May 15, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission has issued a cease-and-desist order against Unified Fund Services, a transfer agency, fund administration and accounting firm, and its former vice president of fund accounting, Michael E. Durham. The firm...

AIG Facing Possible Class-Action Lawsuit.
May 15, 2006... Attorneys with Schiffrin & Barroway plan to file a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of investors who purchased shelf-space funds from American International Group's Advisor...

Executive Moves.(The Bank of New York)(GAMCO Investors Inc.)(PowerShares Capital Management)
May 15, 2006... DWS Scudder Expands Sales Group With 15 Hires DWS Scudder, a division of Deutsche Asset Management Americas, has appointed eight new regional vice presidents, four retirement services specialists, two national account managers and one...

Mutual Funds Should Heed Hispanic Market.
May 15, 2006... In the frenzy to compete for the attention of America's 79 million Baby Boomers, mutual fund companies might be missing the next big business bang: the Hispanic market. In 2004, Hispanics wielded $686 billion in disposable income. By 2009,...

Potomac Funds Stakes Out New Direxion.
May 15, 2006... The Potomac Funds of New York, which manages $1 billion in predominantly indexed, leveraged index and inverse indexed mutual funds, has adopted a new brand identity, Direxion Funds. The shop has also opened up a Boston sales, marketing and fund...

Redefining How Fund Firms Market to Advisers.
May 15, 2006... Too many asset management firms continue to hold an outdated view of their advisers, defining them as either a "prospect" or a "producer." Producers are courted; prospects are bombarded with sales literature. Both approaches are less than...

Americans Ill-Prepared for Retirement: Half Have Saved $50,000 or Less.
May 15, 2006... Americans are woefully ill-prepared for retirement and have unrealistic expectations about how much money they should save for their golden years. As a result, many people could face the prospect of working far longer than they expect, but, in...

Recent NASD Enforcement and Examination Priorities.(National Association of Securities Dealers)
May 15, 2006... A review of recent NASD actions and notices to members suggests that older issues remain a priority for examiners, but some new topics are now raising regulatory eyebrows. The lesson learned from prior actions against member firms is that NASD...

Scalable, Flexible and Profitable SMA Operations.(separately managed account )
May 15, 2006... As industry dialogue about separately managed account (SMA) platforms has shifted beyond connectivity to flexibility, providers are responding to asset managers' key question: "How can we profitably capture a piece of the SMA growth?" Assets in...

Beyond 22c-2: The Oversight Obligation.(United States. Securities and Exchange Commission)
May 15, 2006... As the mutual fund industry wrestles with the details of SEC's Rule 22c-2, it's important that we as an industry don't miss a significant opportunity. Rule 22c-2 presents the industry with the ability - and arguably, the obligation - to ensure...

Fidelity Looks to Expand Clearing Unit.(Fidelity Investments)
May 15, 2006... Fidelity Investments' clearing services unit has expanded its client roster 129% since 2003, and the company expects to continue adding share as industry consolidation continues. Norman R. Malo, president of Fidelity's National Financial...

Wealthy Investors' Appetite for Risk Grows.
May 15, 2006... A high-net-worth client of Peter S. Izzo, a wealth adviser with Merrill Lynch, recently came to him seeking to allocate a small percentage of his portfolio to emerging markets. The client, a retiree in his fifties who once ran a public company,...

Cox Rallies Regulators: Boomer Retirements Demand Vigilance.
May 15, 2006... The nation's 79 million Baby Boomers are a generation unlike any to come before it, and as a result they'll require a unique brand of investment regulation, according to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox. Citing...

Auto Enroll, Lifecycles Boost 401(k) Participation.(Hewitt Associates L.L.C.'s report)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... Employers' efforts in recent years to boost participation in their 401(k) plans appear to be making inroads, according to Hewitt Associates' annual report on investor behavior in defined contribution plans. Automatically enrolling...

ICI President Rallies the Troops: Calls on Industry to Help Solve Retirement Dilemmas.(Investment Company Institute )(Paul Schott Stevens )
May 22, 2006... WASHINGTON - Underscoring the theme of enhancing shareholder value, Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens encouraged the money management industry last week to leverage its innovative past and join efforts to enhance mutual...

Tax Cuts Will Likely Stall GROWTH Act.(Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding)(Law overview)
May 22, 2006... As the investment community applauds the two-year extension of the 15% Federal tax rate on dividends and capital gains through 2010, which President Bush signed into law via the Tax Relief Extension Act of 2005 last Wednesday,...

Federated Joins Quantitative Realm: MDT Play Reflects Industry's Institutional Push.(Federated Investors acquires MDT Advisers)
May 22, 2006... If the mainstream media were any indication, you'd think quantitative portfolio analysis would be to the mutual fund industry these days what technology stocks were in the late 1990s. Although bubble-like enthusiasm is building, don't...

Donohue's Primary Task: Repairing Investor Trust.(Andrew Donohue appointed for Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... With Andrew "Buddy" Donohue taking the helm as director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's division of investment management last week, industry insiders have begun conjecturing as to what kind of leadership he will provide the mutual...

SEC Exam Staff to Hold Regional CCO Seminars.(Securities and Exchange Commission)(chief compliance officers)(Brief article)
May 22, 2006... The Securities and Exchange Commission's examination staff will hold regional seminars this spring and summer for chief compliance officers. The sessions are part of the Commission's ongoing "CCOutreach" program. Each seminar will focus on a...

Executive Moves.(Forward Management appointed Barbara Tolle)(Arden Asset Management Inc. appointed Barry Friedson)(Cynthia Glassman of Securities and Exchange Commission retires)
May 22, 2006... Tolle Joins Forward Mgmt. As Director of Accounting Forward Management has hired Barbara Tolle as director of fund accounting and operations. In this position, Tolle is responsible for fund accounting, administration, tax, regulatory issues...

Surprisingly, Loaded Funds Continue to Attract Assets.(front-loaded funds are just a way for interested parties to make a buck)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... No-load funds are not hard to find, yet investors continue to pay up-front broker commissions to brokers and financial advisers for advice, but Jim Peterson, head of mutual fund research for Charles Schwab, argues that front-loaded funds are...

No Easy Fix to Disclosure Dilemma: Push Out Legal, Call In Marketing, One Expert Says.(meetings)
May 29, 2006... WASHINGTON - The money management industry is wrestling with a titanic disclosure dilemma. As mutual funds continue to undo the damage of the scandal, they've identified improving the format of disclosure documents, as well as leveraging...

Quality, Alignment Get You Noticed: Alpha Isn't Always No. 1 in Asset Manager Selection.
May 29, 2006... WASHINGTON - John Casey, a 39-year veteran of the investment management business, has some frank advice for asset managers struggling to get on the platforms of major broker/dealers. "Being obnoxious is one step, and being aggressive is...

Breakpoint Database on NASD Agenda: Also Seeks Regulatory Harmony for Annuities.(National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) harmonizing for funds)(Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board operates 529 plan investments)(Glauber, Robert R - Chirman and CEO of NASD speaks about investments)
May 29, 2006... WASHINGTON - The NASD has set out its agenda and outlined a smattering of projects, including a number related to mutual funds, that are currently in the works. The pronouncement came from Robert Glauber, chairman and chief executive officer of...

Fidelity Omits Holdings In 13F Filings With SEC.(securities)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... Fidelity Investments last week corrected omissions of holdings in first-quarter filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by filing amended 13F forms. The company had omitted nearly 500 stocks out of its total holdings of just over...

Regulation, Competition Seen as Two Biggest Issues.(surveys of Chief financial officers)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... The two biggest issues that the financial services industry will face in the next few years are the cost, burden and risk associated with regulatory compliance as well as increasing competition among firms, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers...

Cox, Spitzer to Cooperate On Regulatory Matters.(cases and mutual fund investigations)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently met for the first time face-to-face to discuss a wide range of cases, including mutual fund investigations-and vowed to work more...

Executive Moves.(appointments)
May 29, 2006... Scanlon Becomes Head of Fund Marketing at Gabelli Gabelli Funds, a subsidiary of GAMCO Investors, has hired James C. Scanlon as senior vice president and director of mutual fund marketing and distribution. He comes to the firm from Merrill...

401(k)s Increasingly Adopt Pension-Like Features.(Employees benefits worked out)
May 29, 2006... WASHINGTON - The days of defined benefits may be ending, but their tactics live on in an increasing number of defined contribution plans, from enrolling employees automatically, to picking their portfolios and even investing in annuities. ...

Reaching Investors in the 24-Hour News Cycle.(investors)
May 29, 2006... WASHINGTON - When James Zweig bought his first stock back in the late 1970s, the 16-year old waited each day for the paper to arrive so he could gauge his investment's performance. "It was very exciting to wait until the next day, to get...