Money Management Executive articles from May 2008

Money Management Executive archives from May 2008

Big Players Have Yet to Break Into Absolute-Return Mutual Funds: Lipper Preparing 130/30 Data Lineup.
May 5, 2008... Absolute-return mutual funds that seek to provide investors with positive returns whether equity markets are rising or falling, are growing in rapid numbers in today's volatile market and hoping to attract a loyal investor following. But...

No Guarantees For Guaranteed Income: Investors Want Steady Retirement Payments, But Shy Away from Annuities.
May 5, 2008... BOSTON-Retirement income planners, along with mutual and insurance fund executives, are wracking their brains to come up with new products that are low cost, easy to use and easy to sell. So far, that is the $70 trillion-dollar question for...

New Dreyfus CEO Turns Eye to Distribution: Challenge is Building on Brand Image.
May 5, 2008... Dreyfus Corp., a dominant force in money market funds as well as the high-net-worth market through its parent company, Mellon, will become a leader in long-term mutual funds and other investments, if its new chief executive, Jon Baum, meets his...

Give Mutuals a Break on Auction Rates: Politicos to SEC.
May 5, 2008... Pointing to illiquidity and poor fair valuation conditions, two ranking Congressmen have asked Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox to cut mutual fund portfolio managers a break on redemptions of auction-rate securities....

Aggressive Telemarketing Under Tighter Review: Wachovia OCC Order Called Sign of New Era'.
May 5, 2008... WASHINGTON - The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's $144 million enforcement order against Wachovia Corp. is likely to force banks to step up oversight of telemarketing customers. Mutual fund companies and their adviser sales...

Incorporating Forensic Tests In Compliance Programs.(Brief article)
May 5, 2008... Top 10 Considerations: 1.Use forensic tests for multiple purposes-from identifying deficiencies toidentifying unexpected trends. 2.Incorporate more, rather than fewer, perspectives. 3.Focus on all aspects of operations, including...

Higher L-T Capital Gains Devastating: Congress.
May 5, 2008... The U.S. House of Representatives is warning that raising long-term capital gains on mutual fund investors any higher than they already are will seriously impair the markets, shareholders and, eventually, retirees. Citing a recent Lipper...

Executive Moves.
May 5, 2008... BoA's U.S. Trust Appoints Private Wealth Strategists U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management has announced the appointment of 12 client-facing professionals for the New York metropolitan area. Ada Clapp, Michael Josephs...

Changes in the Most Popular Mutual Funds Sold Via RIA Channel Serving High-Net-Worth & Ultra-HNW.(Registered Investment Adviser)(high net worth)
May 5, 2008... Every 12 weeks Advisor Perspective.com looks at sales changes in the most popular mutual funds among the Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) and other "AdvisorPerspectives" (AP) universe. This installment looks at changes from Jan. 31, 2008...

Red Tape, Regulation Straining Fund Boards, Compliance Officers: ICI Heavyweights Weigh in on Industry's Past, Future.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON-As regulatory burdens increase, mutual fund boards of directors' attention to the real business at hand-sound asset management and fiduciary responsibility to the end investor-is conversely being depleted, industry heavyweights...

Fund Industry Needs Security Upgrade: Gen X, Gen Y Driving Internet Trends.
May 12, 2008... WASHINGTON-The mutual fund industry will need to overhaul its online service and security capabilities as U.S. investors increasingly turn to the Internet, instant messaging and other mobile devices to manage their personal finances, investment...

130/30s Seen as Rafts In the Whitewater Rapids: But Benchmark Indexes Could Constrain Growth.
May 12, 2008... NEW YORK-Cautious investors will be watching 130/30 funds over the next few years to see how the new products perform. Many investors are attracted to these active-extension strategies capable of hedge fund gains. But with higher fees than...

Funds Should Remain Firm On Dividend-Paying Suites.
May 12, 2008... No sooner does the mutual fund industry come up with an innovative solution to the retirement income problem than the financial media has to tear it down. No matter the killjoys. The recent array of guaranteed dividend-paying,...

Atkins' SEC Departure Puts Commission in Limbo.
May 12, 2008... Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins has announced he will leave the agency when his term expires in June to return to the private sector. The five-commissioner SEC has been operating with just three commissioners, all...

Week in Review.
May 12, 2008... Alliance to Pay $12 Million In Timing Defamation Suit Former AllianceBernstein mutual fund sales manager John Carl won a $12 million arbitration lawsuit for having been dismissed from the company on the pretext of his role in the...

Executive Moves.(James Carlin appointed at John Hancock Funds Inc.)(Chris Senyek appointed as manager at ISI)(David Edwards appointed at U.S. Trust Corp.)
May 12, 2008... Hancock Names Carlin Independent Chairman John Hancock Funds has elected interim board chairman James Carlin to act as permanent independent chairman of the board. Carlin has been a trustee since 1992. "We are very pleased to have Jim...

At Deadline.
May 12, 2008... Whistleblowing Rules Don't Apply To Privately Held Funds An administrative law judge with the Department of Labor has ruled that the whistleblower provisions of Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 don't apply to employees of...

The Industry's Strength is its Resilience.
May 12, 2008... Looking at the current economic landscape, we know the challenges our industry faces today may be like storms we have weathered in the past. Challenges often become catalysts for important changes in regulation, technology and business...

Phoenix' GRIS Offers HNW Guaranteed Income: Guarantee Kicks in After Money Runs Out.
May 19, 2008... Until recently, getting a guaranteed income in retirement meant buying an annuity. But annuities aren't the right product for everyone, and their restrictions can be a turn-off for high-net-worth investors who want more control over their...

Firms Ponder Seismic Shift' in DC Plans: Changing Default Option from Money Market To Target-Date Could Jolt Investors.
May 19, 2008... WASHINGTON-The general consensus among financial experts is that target-date funds are better suited for the majority of 401(k) investors than money market funds. Only problem is, the passive participant seems to have little interest in making...

ETFs to Infiltrate More Portfolios, 401(k) Plans: Leaders Predict 3,000 ETFs by 2011.
May 19, 2008... WASHINGTON - Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have been growing by leaps and bounds lately, but you ain't seen nothin' yet, said a panel of executives involved in creating and distributing ETFs, speaking at the Investment Company Institute's...

Salutations Where Salutations Are Due.
May 19, 2008... The mood at the Investment Company Institute's 50th Annual General Membership Meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month, themed "Our Foundations, Our Future," was markedly upbeat. Certainly, this is welcome and refreshing, especially...

Market-Timer Gets Year in the Slammer: Gerbasio of Hedge Fund Beacon Rock Skimmed $2.4M.
May 19, 2008... A Pennsylvania court handed has sentenced Thomas J. Gerbasio, a broker with a division of hedge fund Beacon Rock Capital of Portland, Ore., to serve one year and a day in jail. It is one of only a handful of prison sentences that, to date,...

Build On 401(k) Success, Says ICI President Stevens.
May 19, 2008... WASHINGTON-Regulators, employers and the financial services industry must work together to expand the use of 401(k) plans and increase worker participation, the Investment Company Institute's President and CEO Paul Schott Stevens told attendees...

Gabelli to Fight Timing Suit.
May 19, 2008... Four years ago, the board of directors of the Gabelli Funds conducted a thorough investigation into charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that market timing had occurred in its funds, according to a release the invesment manager...

Golden Oldie Fund Rockin' Since Crash of 1929.(Company overview)
May 19, 2008... The CGM Mutual Fund may be nearly 80 years old, but it's acting like a fund half its age, writes The Motley Fool. Established on Nov. 6, 1929, the fund formerly known as the Loomis Sayles Mutual Fund had an impressive return of 38.5% in...

National Financial Launches Portal for B/Ds, Advisers.
May 19, 2008... National Financial, a Fidelity Investments company, has launched a multimedia portal that gives broker/dealers and advisers who use its Streetscape workstation exclusive access to business-building and training resources. The National Financial...

Credit Crisis Three-Quarters Unwound, Dimon Tells ICI.
May 19, 2008... WASHINGTON - The credit crisis is 75% to 85% unwound in terms of the financial markets, but the economy may still be on shaky ground, saidJamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, to the 1,500 delegates assembled here for the Investment...

Executive Moves.(Joanne Pietrini-Smith appointed at AXA Distributors, LLC)(John O'Neill appointed at Venable LLP)(Kevin Sullivan appointed at AIG Investments )
May 19, 2008... AXA Names Pietrini-Smith As Chief Operating Officer AXA Distributors, LLC has appointed Joanne Pietrini-Smith as chief operating officer of AXA Partners, its life insurance business. Pietrini-Smith will oversee the management and...

Direxion Funds Leverages its Leap into ETFs.
May 19, 2008... Direxion Funds of New York and Boston hopes to break new ground for itself as well as the leveraged ETF marketplace. On April 30, Direxion Funds registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission 36 ETFs that will each leverage their...

Correction.(Correction notice)
May 19, 2008... The 2008 Mutual Fund Service Guide contains the following errors: Under Boston Financial Data Services on page 44, the number of shareholder accounts added/lost in 2007 should read 1,700,000 added, not 1,700. Under DST Systems on page 46, the...

Funds Benefit-And Suffer From Trustee Oversight.
May 26, 2008... PHILADELPHIA-Boards may have grown in power since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, but mutual fund companies should take care to temper that influence so it doesn't interfere with business. "Since Sarbanes, boards have flexed...

Futures Fund Taps Into Congressional Effect'.
May 26, 2008... Talk about tapping into the powers that be inside the Beltway. A new mutual fund recently registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission actually hopes to do the opposite by proving out historical statistics that show the U.S....

Wachovia Phasing Out A.G. Edwards Brand: Promoting Wachovia Moniker In New Ad Campaign; Evergreen Fund Name Sticks.
May 26, 2008... Wachovia Corp. plans to phase out the 121-year-old A.G. Edwards name, sacrificing a strong brand for a stronger one. "At the end of the day, the deciding factor was the huge brand equity and awareness surrounding the name Wachovia," said...

XBRL to Create True, National Fund Supermarket.
May 26, 2008... The Securities and Exchange Commission voted unanimously last Wednesday on a proposal that would require mutual funds to provide risk/return, fee and strategy information using the same new digital data tagging system as the 500 largest U.S....

Fidelity Venture Arm Seeks Next Big Web Auction Site.
May 26, 2008... Fidelity Ventures is backing several new Internet start-ups in hopes of competing with online giant eBay. The firm's latest $25 million investment took place in February for a British company called Seatwave, which specializes in the...

Gradual XBRL Rollout Among 500 Large Issuers.(Report)(Brief article)
May 26, 2008... The move to XBRL filings will roll out in stages, with about 500 so-called large domestic and foreign issuers expected to submit XBRL versions of financial reports this winter. This is according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which...

Van Kampen Funds Assets Down 12.7% Amid Slump.
May 26, 2008... Morgan Stanley has been shuffling executives and its sales strategy for its Van Kampen mutual fund unit, The Wall Street Journal reports. The funds are part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, which has $600 billion in assets and accounted...

Money Market Field Exit To Keep Up the Red Ink.
May 26, 2008... The nearly $80 billion that was pulled from money market funds in April was the highest monthly total in 16 years. While some of that has already reversed in typical May fashion, the size of the outflow had some discussing whether a more...

Strategist Predicts Rebound In S&P Tech Sector Funds.
May 26, 2008... The information technology sector has surpassed financials as the largest sector in the S&P 500 index for the first time since early 2002, Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst for Standard & Poor's, told BusinessWeek.com. IT currently...

At Deadline.
May 26, 2008... REIT Fund Redux Mutual funds investing in real estate investment trusts are "clawing their way back after taking a clobbering in the credit crunch last year," The Wall Street Journal reports.The average real estate fund, which lost over...

Executive Moves.(John Papadopulos promoted at Wachovia Corp.)(William Kline appointed at New York Life Retirement Plan Services)(John W. Gabriel Jr. appointed as vice president at Bellatore LLC )
May 26, 2008... ING Names Brown Retail Annuity President ING has named Valerie Brown as president of the ING Retail Annuity Market Segment, the company's wealth management group. The company has also appointed Patrick Yung as chief marketing officer...

Industry Lauds Davis Decision on Municipal Bonds.
May 26, 2008... WASHINGTON-Market participants hailed last Tuesday's long-awaited but widely expected Supreme Court decision that upheld 42 states' preferential tax treatment of their bonds as a "resounding victory" for the municipal securities market. ...

Evergreen Puts Parent's Purchases to Work in Sales Push.
May 26, 2008... Evergreen Investment Management Co. LLC is trying to expand by pulling together its disparate pieces, improving its ability to sell products and moving into more foreign markets. Parent Wachovia Corp., has been growing in investment...

Edinburgh of Scotland Now Sub-Advisor for Vanguard.
May 26, 2008... Vanguard Group announced that it has added Edinburgh Partners Ltd. as a sub-advisor to its international value fund. AllianceBernstein LP, Lazard Asset Management LLC and Hansberger Global Investors are to remain advisors to the Vanguard...

MME Readers Still in the FRC Sales Data Loop.
May 26, 2008... We were rather startled when we read as a sidenote in a story on money market mutual fund flows in The Wall Street Journal the other day that Financial Research Corp., the go-to source for industry- and firm-wide sales data, would no longer be...