Investment News articles from June 2003

Investment News archives from June 2003

KPMG takes another stab at financial advice; Under new program, role is subcontractor.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall A few years ago, KPMG LLP tried and failed to make a splash in the financial advisory business. But it's trying again with a new, but humbler, strategy that is winning praise from consultants. The New...

Advisers should stick to hedge trimmers.(Opinion)
June 2, 2003... A chicken in every pot and a hedge fund in every financial plan. It sounds like a promising 21st century election slogan, but it also sounds too good to be true. And it is, though you wouldn't know it from the hoopla about hedge funds. ...

Enters field with Nasdaq Composite fund; Fidelity putting its seal on ETFs.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: David Hoffman Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest mutual fund manager, has given exchange-traded funds its blessing. The Boston company filed papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week revealing its...

One on One: "You can't underestimate the need to restore the faith of investors in the system".(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard As president of the North American Securities Administrators Association Inc., Christine A. Bruenn found herself in the national spotlight this year. State securities regulators have joined New York Attorney...

Nearly 40% of timer group's members want to launch their own; Hedgers have numbers in SAAFTI.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin About 10% of the 180 firms in the Society of Asset Allocators and Fund Timers Inc. already manage hedge funds, and as much as 40% of those who don't are considering launching one. That estimate comes from an...

Advisers help sales of private REITs sizzle; Deny they're just chasing commissions.(Real Estate Investing)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller One of the hot investments from last year - non-public real estate investment trusts - shows no signs of cooling off. And financial advisers are among those fanning the flames. Sales of private REITs by the top...

Reverse Spin: Congress' compassionate conservatives.(Briefs)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Caitlin Mollison Something is always better than nothing. President Bush on Wednesday signed into law the third tax cut package in three years. The cuts total $350 billion, less than half what he originally wanted. ...

Street Wise: Making case for junk bonds after a strong run-up.(The Markets)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin The high-yield-corporate-bond market has been charging hard since at least November, when the asset class was ignited along with a rally in stocks. So now the question is: How much more steam is left in the rally,...

At Issue; It's time to stop taking pot shots at the timers.(Letters)
June 2, 2003... Your recent opinion article ridiculing market timing ["Motion sickness: Timers and market tend to move in opposite directions,'' April 28] piqued my curiosity. In particular, I was wondering why William Berg would bother writing it and why you...

Taking Sides: New tax laws will tax advisers.(Opinion)
June 2, 2003... Financial planners and investment advisers have their work cut out for them over the next few weeks, digesting the provisions and implications of the new tax law. They should be spending every spare moment becoming familiar with the law's...

Mortgage-backed securities return to earth; After major upswing, gains now ho-hum.(Real Estate Investing)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Liz Skinner Returns from mortgage-backed securities apparently have hit the roof and are headed back to the ground floor. The investments aren't furnishing the same kind of returns they were a year ago, mostly because falling...

Tax Watch: Challenge for the challenged misses the mark.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Mark Battersby The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently dismissed an argument that the tax laws fail to provide equal protection to less educated individuals in an estate tax matter. In agreeing with the U.S. Tax Court...

Fast Track: Gartmore gearing up to court advisers.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Get ready to start hearing a lot more about Gartmore Global Investments Inc. Having spent the past four years positioning itself through acquisitions, a spinoff and the unveiling of a new name and logo, Gartmore...

A tee party for wooing advisers; Firms hope to score at seniors golf bash.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Many financial advisers will enjoy the Senior PGA Championship festivities this week as guests of financial services companies. That is because such companies are among the major sponsors of the Champions Tour...

Short Interests: Albatross for smaller public companies.(Briefs)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard and Caitlin Mollison Some provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 may be so expensive and onerous that many smaller public companies may consider returning to the private sector, merge with larger companies or...

Fast losing interest in money markets; Meager yields are a growing cause for concern.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall An old friend to financial advisers is turning into a new worry. With interest rates plunging and talk of deflation on the rise, advisers are getting anxious about holding cash in money market funds. ...

Monday Morning: Investors impaired by emotional biases.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Mike Clowes Investors are handicapped by psychological biases in their investment decisions. As Bill Berg, president of Sigma Investment Management Co. in Portland, Ore., said in a recent speech, "Our brains are wired to make...

Law makes advisers preferred customers; See tax act's benefit, shun drastic reallocation.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard Advisers are eyeing preferred stocks as the place to go, now that dividends and capital gains will get preferential treatment under the new tax law. They also are gearing up to try to keep their clients from...

Real estate closed-end funds gain in popularity; Healthy yields driving IPO surge.(Real Estate Investing)
June 2, 2003... Byline: David Hoffman With interest rates at all-time lows, investing for income has become a serious problem. Bond funds just aren't yielding very much. Junk-bond funds are generating decent yield, but many advisers say their clients...

Singing the praises of dividend strategies; Strategists tout stocks with big payouts.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Bruce Kelly Carol Lippman of A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. had been preaching the power of stocks with high dividends for almost a decade before the recent tax cut on dividends. And she has the proof to back it up. Ms. Lippman's...

Hard-sell VA tactics under fire; NASD issues an alert, and plans a crackdown.(News)
June 2, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller NASD plans to come down hard on brokers who resort to scare tactics when pitching variable annuities, particularly to senior citizens. The brokerage industry's self-regulatory organization has cases under...

At the Bell.(Late News)
June 2, 2003... Morningstar adding clients in new deal * Morningstar Inc. in Chicago said Friday it is buying mPower.com Inc., a San Francisco investment advisory company, to expand its retirement advice services to sponsors of large 401(k) plans. ...

Monday Morning: A house isn't just a home for households.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Mike Clowes Many investors making asset allocation decisions focus only on their holdings of stocks, bonds and cash, and ignore other significant assets: their homes. For many investors, the wealth locked up in the family home...

Firm rebuilding itself as mutual fund powerhouse; Makeover renews Neuberger.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall A new management team has shaken up the old-line value management firm Neuberger Berman Inc. in the past three years, bringing in new blood and reversing an asset outflow. The revamped firm saw a $4 billion...

Short Interests - Investing seminars: For women only.(Briefs)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin, Rick Miller and Caitlin Mollison Investing might be a gender- neutral pursuit, but for some women, it's simply more fun when there aren't any men hanging around. For the first time, Chicago fund tracker...

Low interest rates fuel spike in companies' stock prices; Strong manager eyes firms with debt.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: David Hoffman It seems to buck common sense, but at least one growth-oriented mutual fund manager is finding value in the stocks of companies that have sizable debts. Chris Wiles, a Pittsburgh-based fund manager with Strong...

Carrots part of bid to save advice bill; Advisers focus of rescue effort.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard Proposals favoring independent and fee-only advisers are being discussed on Capitol Hill as a compromise to get investment advice legislation passed. One proposal would allow advisers to give 401(k) participants...

Taking Sides: Making investment advice both affordable and impartial.(Opinion)
June 9, 2003... Investing isn't a do-it-yourself project for most people. Few investors have the expertise, interest or time to develop a solid investment strategy for their 401(k) investments, execute it, monitor it and then tweak it as necessary. After...

Investors hot for IPO, targets cool to NFP; Rollup firm seeks to fund more adviser deals.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: David Hoffman The initial public offering of National Financial Partners Corp. is expected to get a warm reception from investors, but fee-only advisers are giving the company a cooler reception. Likely IPO investors apparently...

More bulls than market can bear? Newsletter optimism seen as bad sign.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin The overwhelmingly bullish sentiment among writers of financial newsletters could spell bad news for the equity markets. According to the latest data from Chartcraft Inc., a New Rochelle, N.Y., company that...

Datebook.(Calendar/Datebook)
June 9, 2003... JUNE 11-12 - Two-day IRA Workshop, BISYS Retirement Services. Radisson at O'Hare, Chicago. (800)346-3860. 11-12 - Two-day IRA Workshop, BISYS Retirement Services. Westin Pasadena (Calif.). (800)346-3860. 11-12 - 2003 Canadian...

Pavia named editor.(News)
June 9, 2003... James Pavia has been named editor of InvestmentNews. He replaces Keith Girard, who joined Billboard as editor in chief. Mr. Pavia brings a wealth of editing experience to InvestmentNews, having previously been editor of five business...

Conference Call: Royal Alliance remains bullish on adviser platform.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Bruce Kelly Royal Alliance Associates Inc. of New York is keen on growth, both on its own and as part of the AIG Advisor Group Inc. Royal Alliance, the largest of the six broker-dealers under the umbrella marketing name of the...

At Issue; Timer commentary wasn't Street smart.(Letters)
June 9, 2003... In "Motion sickness: Timers and market tend to move in opposite directions'' [April 28], William Berg quotes aggregate data from Ned Davis Research Inc. on "market timing'' to draw the conclusion that market timers lack skill and do far worse...

Product Watch: Hancock gives Revolution annuities a forward spin.(News)
June 9, 2003... John Hancock Financial Services Inc. in Boston has added features to its Revolution variable-annuity line, including flexible pricing and a feature to help combat market loss. The new annuities, Revolution Value II and Revolution Extra II,...

`Discount' brokers; Break-point watch can be a backbreaker.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Bruce Kelly Keeping track of a client's multiple accounts in the same fund is causing problems for some broker-dealer compliance executives as the securities industry attempts to tighten up on regulation. NASD is pressing...

Baghdad already attracting some early-bird investors; Big opportunities seen for the risk-tolerant.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Jacqueline S. Gold Now that the war in Iraq is all but officially over, Jonathan Auerbach and David Grayson are planning their own invasion. Managing directors of a New York brokerage house that bears their names, the two men...

Cap Guardian gets A for `investment Q'; Process is key driver in ranking of managers.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Christine Williamson Capital Guardian Trust Co. of Los Angeles is the top money manager for "investment quality,'' according to a recent survey. Investment quality as a money manager was defined in the report by Casey Quirk &...

Other Views: A strong case for keeping dollar weak; Other economies' self-destructive behavior likely has led to deflationary pressure here.(Opinion)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Arun Motianey It may seem as if the following announcements, issued over the past few weeks, were carefully orchestrated: the Federal Reserve's voicing of its concern about a substantial, unwelcome fall in inflation; the European...

One on One: "We as Americans think of housing as a big asset, but it's really shelter".(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall Michael A. Torres is in the eye of a storm, but he speaks with a steady tone. The chief executive of Lend Lease Rosen Real Estate Securities LLC in Berkeley, Calif., a mutual fund company that invests in real...

States balking over settlement money; SEC would be conduit under House bill.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard House financial services industry overseers are determined to see that states turn over more money to bilked investors. And state regulators aren't happy about it. A provision in a bill introduced May 20 by Richard...

At the Bell.(Late News)
June 9, 2003... Eaton Vance set to buy Parametric * Eaton Vance Corp. is stepping up its commitment to separately managed accounts with its acquisition of Parametric Portfolio Associates. Boston-based Eaton Vance, with $62 billion under management,...

Street Wise: Tech is back for State Street fund after a dry spell.(The Markets)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Happy days are here again for some small-cap managers. Tucker Walsh, manager of the State Street Research Emerging Growth Fund (SCGAX), spent the better part of the past few years digging through the...

Zurich's riches: Agents; Distribution key in Bank One deal.(News)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller Besides becoming a manufacturer of life insurance and annuity products, Bank One Corp. gets a distribution bonanza in its deal to buy parts of Zurich Life. A national network of 40,000 independent broker/insurance...

Reverse Spin: Greenspan & Co. not afraid to take action.(Briefs)
June 9, 2003... Byline: Caitlin Mollison The "D'' word just won't go away. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said last Tuesday that it might be necessary to cut interest rates as "insurance'' against the possibility of deflation. The...

Short Interests: FPA starts spreading the news.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller In a continuing effort to improve financial literacy among the general public, the Financial Planning Association has launched a quarterly e-mail newsletter, PlanSmart. It will feature regular columns such as "Smart...

Monday Morning: Deflation concerns are overinflated.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Mike Clowes If you want to know anything about how the stock market reacts to inflation or deflation, ask Steve Leuthold, chairman of The Leuthold Group, a research firm in Minneapolis. Mr. Leuthold wrote the definitive book on...

Vanguard's index switches seen as a `marketing' ploy; Back-testing shows old, new with similar performance.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: David Hoffman Seven Vanguard mutual funds are now following new indexes, but the performance of those indexes looks remarkably similar to other indexes'. The similarity in performance - based on 10 years of back-testing -...

VAs can't get carrot to stick; 3% return guarantee a drain on profits.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller Many top variable-annuity providers have removed a great investment deal from their product - the fixed subaccount guaranteeing a 3% minimum one-year return. If fixed subaccounts come back, they will carry far-lower...

Street Wise: Limited partnership eyes unlimited returns.(The Markets)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Quadriga Asset Management Inc. in Chicago is making inroads into the retail brokerage market with a hedged strategy that is likely to start turning some heads. Quadriga's Superfund LP, which is technically being...

Get your credit card applications right here; Fund firms, brokers mull reward programs.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller More financial advisers may one day hand out credit card applications along with their asset allocations. Mutual fund companies and broker-dealers are said to be looking at offering credit-card-based consumer-reward...

Many support push to increase disclosure of expenses; Advisers back effort to boost fund details.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. and Sara Hansard Financial advisers overwhelmingly support legislation introduced in Congress last week that would advance transparency in the mutual fund industry. The jury's still out on whether...

Taking Sides: More fund disclosure needed.(Opinion)
June 16, 2003... The mutual fund industry provides a great service to average investors by allowing them to garner most of the economies of scale available to institutional investors. That is, it enables individuals to invest in the capital markets, seek...

At the Bell.(Late News)
June 16, 2003... Harris expanding its adviser force * Harris Investor Services LLC in Chicago is expanding its financial adviser force as it offers its fee-based advisory service, Harris AdvantEdge Investing, to the 600,000 customers of its online discount...

Reverse Spin: Taking hard line on white-collar crime.(Briefs)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. Talk about setting the mood. A judge last Tuesday sentenced Samuel Waksal, founder of ImClone Systems Inc., to more than seven years in prison for his part in an insider-trading scheme involving the New...

One on One: "We are trying to help advisers do a better job for their customers".(The Markets)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller John V. Murphy had been chief executive of OppenheimerFunds Inc. for two months when the Sept. 11, 2001, disaster put his leadership to the test. Oppenheimer had about 600 employees on five floors in Tower One of...

At Issue; You're not fee-only if you get a percentage.(Letters)
June 16, 2003... If the 800 or so members of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors intend to continue advertising themselves as "fee-only'' financial advisers, the should immediately change the way they are being compensated for their work....

Investors may shun take-it-with-you mortgage; Lack of secondary market is an obstacle.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. Last week's launch of a portable home loan by the mortgage subsidiary of E*TRADE Group Inc. generated plenty of buzz in real estate circles. But the unit faces an uphill battle in taking the market for...

Notion of states ceding funds concerns Democrats; SEC, states battle over investor restitution.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard A major disagreement between the SEC and the states over who determines whether money from securities fraud fines should go to investor restitution has spread to the House Financial Services Committee. At a recent...

Independents' day near with Pru's broker force; Reps heavily courted by independent broker-dealers.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Bruce Kelly Some brokers with Prudential Securities Inc. of New York are being courted heavily to move to independent broker-dealers. In the wake of Prudential's announced merger with Wachovia Securities Inc. of Richmond, Va.,...

Separates managers jump gun; Race is on to comply ahead of deadline.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall Separate-accounts managers are starting to report after-tax performance information, following the Association for Investment Management and Research's promulgation of new standards in February. The standards...

Fast Track: New Principal exec eyes subadvisory gigs.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall Principal Financial Group Inc. has a relatively low profile for a company managing $100 billion of assets - predominantly in retirement plans. Doug Younkin hopes to change that. The former national sales manager...

Moving Up.(News)
June 16, 2003... * Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in New York has elected Alberto Cribiore to its board of directors. Mr. Cribiore, 57, is the managing partner of Brera Capital Partners LLC, a New York-based global private-equity investment firm that he founded in...

Tax Watch: New tax cut may bypass 8 million taxpayers.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Mark Battersby A recent study by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center claims that 8.1 million low- and middle-income taxpayers who pay billions in income taxes each year will receive no tax reduction under...

Brokers can take measures to protect themselves from ethical, legal headaches; Walking the high wire with celeb clients.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Sara Hansard High-profile affluent clients can create difficult ethical and legal situations for brokers, as the Martha Stewart case has illustrated, but they can protect themselves, suggests an informal InvestmentNews survey. ...

Product Watch: Fidelity Advisor adds international small-cap fund.(News)
June 16, 2003... Fidelity Investments in Boston has launched the Fidelity Advisor International Small Cap Fund, bringing to 10 the number of international equity offerings in its Advisor product line. The fund is available exclusively through investment...

Big deficits in the thinking of tax cut critics.(Opinion)
June 16, 2003... The recently passed federal income tax cut was too big, some critics contend. The economy didn't need the stimulus, and the tax cuts will leave us with huge deficits for years to come, they maintain. Now critics are saying the tax cut...

Advisers key despite planning-software glut; Technology cannot replace counseling.(Software & Technology)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Liz Skinner Financial planning software has evolved so that users can now set up stock option and tax strategies, as well as run Monte Carlo simulations that evaluate their portfolio risks. There are dozens of financial...

Software transforms advisers into liability experts; Debt management tool looks at total picture.(Software & Technology)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Brooke Southall Financial advisers, long loath to be mentioned in the same breath as mortgage brokers, can now become experts on turning consumer debt into investible assets. FinancialCircuit Inc. of Campbell, Calif., is making...

Urged to leverage clout as stockholders to overhaul corporate governance; Gauntlet is thrown down to investment firms.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Rick Miller Investment management firms could have become the leaders in improving corporate-governance standards and restoring investor confidence, but they haven't lived up to expectations, some observers say. Industry...

Short Interests: Growth position for the First Girlfriend.(News)
June 16, 2003... Byline: Frank Kelly New York state's newly confirmed superintendent of banking says one of her goals is to help promote job growth. Diana Taylor probably should have a talk with her boyfriend. That's New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who...

Higher-end funds lag in returns; Mid-cap blends the lone exception.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Frederick P. Gabriel Jr. When it comes to mutual funds, you don't always get what you pay for. Funds with lower expense ratios outperformed more-expensive ones in eight out of nine domestic categories on a one-, three-, five-...

One on One: "There is no riskless investment".(The Markets)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Bruce Kelly Focusing on clients keeps Deena B. Katz on the go. Ms. Katz is currently writing a book about financial advisers and client expectations. It will be her third for advisers and planners. Ms. Katz is president of...

Women less confident about retirement goals; Overall pessimism regarding investment.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: David Hoffman Women are less confident than men are about their ability to achieve their retirement goals. That is the finding of a survey of 359 men and women between the ages of 45 and 60, released earlier this month by...

Settlement a Hobson's choice for independents? Basic research biz might be imperiled.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Marvin V. Greene Getting a piece of several hundred million dollars can add needed gusto to a company's bottom line. That's a welcome prospect staring independent-stock-research firms in the face as they discuss, cajole, market...

Natural-gas price spike a boon for some; Investors in energy may ride wave.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Liz Skinner Consumers unable to do much to lower soaring natural-gas bills could try to position their portfolios to profit. All signs point up when it comes to the price of natural gas, which already is selling at record...

Monday Morning: Notes from an interesting first week.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Jim Pavia It's always difficult when you're the new kid on the block. You're forced to discover the many ins and outs of new surroundings. In addition, you quickly have to get up to speed on the neighborhood, knowing who the...

Wealth of opportunity for Citigroup unit; Private bank shines amid analyst gloom.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Tom Fredrickson CNS For years, Citigroup Inc.'s private bank lived up to its name. Few outside of the New York-based company had ever heard of its small wealth management arm. But after three years of uninterrupted improvement...

Moving Up.(News)
June 23, 2003... * Janus Capital Group Inc. in Denver has named Girard Miller executive vice president and chief operating officer. Mr. Miller, 52, has been president and chief executive officer of the ICMA Retirement Corp., a Washington-based company that...

Tax Watch: Congress' budget office expects record deficit.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Mark Battersby The Congressional Budget Office has increased its estimate of the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2003, expecting it to exceed $400 billion - shattering the previous record - even as President Bush and lawmakers...

Street Wise: Aggressive-growth fund without style drift is thriving.(The Markets)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Jeff Benjamin Brian Clifford, manager of the SunAmerica Growth Opportunities Fund (SGWAX), makes no bones about his fund's bumpy ride over the past few years. "Styles come in and out of favor, but we're going to stick to our...

Fund companies have a big secret: Size of top managers' paychecks; SEC mulls disclosing pay incentives for managers.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Ilana Polyak A list of the world's top secrets would include the key to the philosophers' stone, the formula for Coca-Cola and the compensation for a top-performing mutual fund manager. "It's an absolute black hole,'' says Roy...

Product Watch: Ave Maria launches two Catholic-values funds.(News)
June 23, 2003... Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., has unveiled two Catholic mutual funds - the Ave Maria Growth Fund (AVEGX) and the Ave Maria Bond Fund (AVEFX). Like the two-year-old Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund, the new funds...

Those investing in apartments, offices likely to keep struggling; Retail segment of REITs seen taking off.(News)
June 23, 2003... Byline: Dale Buss The rising stars in the real estate investment trust sector will likely be in the retail segment, investment professionals say, while most apartment and office REITs are expected to continue to disappoint. REITs are...