Investment News articles from March 2002

Investment News archives from March 2002

House hashing out pension reform bill. (At the Bell).
March 4, 2002... House Republicans are trying to draft a consensus bill on pensions in response to the Enron Corp. collapse. According to a notice sent out by a spokesman for the House Education and the Workforce Committee Friday morning, the chairmen of...

ING putting funds under its own name. (At the Bell).
March 4, 2002... * Attempting to strengthen the ING brand in the United States, ING U.S. Financial Services in Scottsdale, Ariz., is putting all of its mutual funds and variable-annuity subaccounts under the new name ING Funds. A spokesman, Dana Ripley,...

Canseco strikes out on Royal merger. (At the Bell).
March 4, 2002... * Canseco Financial Group of Miami Beach, Fla., and Royal Finance Inc. of West Palm Beach, Fla., have called off their merger. Last week, a hostile group took control of Royal Finance's board of directors, says V. Ray Harlow, the mortgage...

AmEx fixes glitch on outside funds. (At the Bell).
March 4, 2002... * American Express Financial Advisors Inc. has closed a loophole that let its force of more than 10,000 financial reps trade nonproprietary mutual funds without paying ticket charges. As of Friday, the Minneapolis-based financial planning...

Weak market drains assets. (At the Bell).
March 4, 2002... * Assets under management for the entire month continued to slip in February at Stilwell Financial Inc., but the decline was offset on Feb. 28 by an acquisition. At the end of February, assets totaled $186 billion, a spokeswoman for the...

3 fund units join governance group. (At the Bell).
March 4, 2002... * John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group Inc. in Malvern, Pa., says three fund companies have accepted his proposal to push for better corporate governance in public companies' boardrooms. He announced forming the pressure group about two...

Bonds signal looming recovery: Muni party may be ending as spreads face pressure.
March 4, 2002... Big-city mayors may be singing the busted-budget blues, but the market for municipal bonds is belting out another refrain - happy days are near again. The recent out performance of municipal bonds is a good indication that the economy is...

A gorilla hides in the mist: Investment Company Institute needs to lead, advocates say.
March 4, 2002... To shareholder activists, the Investment Company Institute is the 800-pound gorilla that hides in the thicket while others fight its battles. Now, however, they say that the mutual fund industry trade group's muscle is needed more than...

A well-laid raid yields big sting: Tucker Anthony called to task for poaching rival's employees.
March 4, 2002... Curtis Thompson and Rob Brown met through a mutual friend. Five months later they were co-workers, the result of a brazen raid that involved secret meetings, late-night photocopying sessions, phony negotiations, bounties to encourage...

Chase the heat, and you only get burned. (Monday Morning Insights & Analysis).
March 4, 2002... I fever there was evidence that individuals need investment guidance, it is the results of DALBAR Inc.'s "Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior." The study, published last June, shows that from 1984 through 2000, the average equity...

Barclays: A proxy on both your houses. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
March 4, 2002... Many people can't decide whether Hewlett-Packard Co.'s proposed merger of Compaq Computer Corp. is a brainy idea or not. But Barclays Global Investors -- HP'S largest institutional shareholder, with 60 million shares -- has found an elegant way...

CFP feelgood. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
March 4, 2002... Financial advisers apparently have done their part to help consumers feel better about their finances despite the stock market downturn and economic recession. According to the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards in Denver,...

Mutual fun. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
March 4, 2002... Not yet ready to file your taxes? How about a warm-up? Competitive Edge Enterprises Inc. in Guelph, Ontario, is stocking store shelves during this tax season with Mutual Mania, a board game aimed at putting fun back into buying and selling...

The lowdown on lockdowns. (Short Interests Tips, Tends & Observations).
March 4, 2002... A survey of 250 mostly small businesses that operate 401(k) plans may provide ammunition for the Bush administration, which is seeking to limit the length of lockdowns imposed by plan sponsors when they change service providers. It found...

Problematical viaticals stymie regulators: Turf wars, Texas court case complicate push for uniform law.
March 4, 2002... Despite recent crackdowns and congressional attention, state regulators are facing an uphill battle to break up viatical scams. Laws regulating the sale of viaticals are all over the map, and a jurisdictional disagreement between securities...

Morningstar to ink finer line on funds: Growth, value evaluations will be sharpened.
March 4, 2002... As investor confidence in the financial workings of corporate America erodes in the wake of Enron Corp.'s spectacular meltdown, an influential mutual fund tracker is poised to unveil a new system for categorizing stocks. Morningstar Inc.,...

Is separates plan star-crossed? Some in industry take offense.
March 4, 2002... What's best for the separate-accounts industry? Debate over that topic is sending certain factions of the white-hot business into a tizzy. At issue is an effort by Morningstar Inc. of Chicago to roll out an independent rating system for...

Economy's pulse quicker than we thought. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
March 4, 2002... Call it a case of the 24-hour recession. Lending credence to the growing ranks of optimists who already have declared the recession dead and buried, the government Thursday said that economic growth over the last three months of 2001 was...

Party pooper. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
March 4, 2002... * Of course, no party is complete without at least one party pooper. Here's ours: the consumer. U.S. consumer sentiment stumbled in February for the first time in five months, a report released Friday showed. The University of...

Falling fortunes. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
March 4, 2002... * Have you hugged a billionaire lately? Apparently they could use it. Forbes magazine published its 16th ranking of the world's billionaires Friday, and more than 50% of those who made the list saw their fortunes shrink last year. ...

Brokers get ax. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
March 4, 2002... * There's a first time for everything. A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. said Wednesday it will cut 400 jobs, or 2.35% of its work force. The layoffs, which will not affect the St. Louis-based company's 7,300-person brokerage force, mark the...

At last, a new annuity sales hook: Longevity; Insurers unveil strategy as retirement savings summit convenes.
March 4, 2002... The increasing longevity of Americans may provide life insurers with the adrenaline they need to energize their marketing of annuities. With retirement fast approaching for millions of baby boomers, the industry has been on a drive to...

Taking the last stage outta town: Bank fund no longer able to go it alone.
March 4, 2002... It's not how well your mutual fund performs; it's how effectively you bring in fresh assets. Such is the lesson learned from the gradual rise and sudden decline of the SIFE Trust Fund, one of the nation's older -- and until recently, more...

Investors want sharper ax to whack errant directors: Enron foul-up prompts union, consumer effort.
March 4, 2002... Investor advocates want regulators to make it easier for shareholders to give corporate board members the boot. The nation's largest labor organization, pushing to get Enron Corp. directors out of other corporate boardrooms, became the...

Enron analysts show worst of Wall Street's arrogance. (Taking Sides Editorial).
March 4, 2002... Want an inside look at the state of sell-side investment analysis on Wall Street these days? Check this out. Curt Launer, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston Corp.: "Without accurate and complete financial reporting from a...

401(k) can't be fixed, so it should be 86ed: if workers are taking all the risks related to saving for their retirement, give them one simplified account to watch over, and allow no one but the worker to meddle with it. (Other Views Ideas and Analysis).
March 4, 2002... When we outlined the dangers of 401(k)s last year (InvestmentNews, June 4), the response from industry insiders was, "Are you crazy? 401(k) plans are a great deal for both participating employees and sponsoring companies. They're a win-win!"...

Bogle, Miller welcomed to corporate-reform push. (Correspondence).
March 4, 2002... This letter is in response to your Feb. 18 editorial, "Funds need to use their clout to push for corporate reform." The $2.3 trillion socially responsible investment industry for over 30 years has been urging companies for better disclosure...

Broad global and international funds: Overseas, income investing's the way to go. (The Markets).
March 4, 2002... Broad global and international funds Overseas, income investing's the way to go GLOBAL FLEXIBLE PORTFOLIO % CHANGE YTD 1-year 3-year ...

It's smooth sailing for shares of a boating supplier. (Street Wise Commentary).
March 4, 2002... West Marine Inc. (WMAR), a specialty retailer in Watsonville, Calif., continues to gain favor with investors, and Wall Street also is starting to notice the company. West Marine, with a market cap of just $384 million, is notable for its...

Investment Watch. (The Markets).
March 4, 2002... Investors dumped the stock of the West Palm Beach, Fla., mortgage broker Wednesday, as more than 120000 shares -- 12 times the average daily volume -- traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board. The share price hit new lows when it fell...

"We want to have the flexibility of finding the best managers out there". (One on One).
March 4, 2002... Back in 1996, when Bruce Lipnick purchased his first equity stake in a hedge fund, he already was providing answers to questions that had not yet been asked. As founder, president and CEO of Asset Alliance Corp. in New York, Mr. Lipnick...

Top man leaves Alex. Brown unit. (At the Bell).
March 11, 2002... The head of Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown's private-client division has called it quits. Thomas Schweizer Jr., who had run the unit since 1988 and had been at the Baltimore company for 33 years, was one of the last top executives remaining...

Mexico Fund wins. (At the Bell).
March 11, 2002... Directors of The Mexico Fund Inc., a $992.9 million closed-end fund in Washington, successfully fought off an attempt to seize control of the board, according to preliminary results of the voting at its annual shareholders meeting Thursday. ...

Some funds defy truth in labeling: Adviser could be led astray by conflicting classifications.
March 11, 2002... Like beauty the labels attached to mutual funds are only skin deep. Of the 1,156 large-, mid- and small-cap domestic funds tracked by the two leading fund-classification companies, 264, or 22.8%, were characterized differently, according to...

Richest investors raise bar on advice.
March 11, 2002... Shocked by events of the past year, the nation's richest investors fundamentally altered their approach to investing. That much is a given. But a new study provides one of the most detailed portraits yet of how that market has changed and...

Popular site may go pro: Finance portal eyes services for ready market -- advisers.
March 11, 2002... Um... do you Yahoo!? Advisers do, particularly when it comes to Yahoo! Finance. What's remarkable about its popularity among advisers is that the free financial web-site really is designed for mom-and-pop investors. But it's so...

Tremont to add two hedge funds. (At the Bell).
March 11, 2002... Tremont Advisers Inc., a Rye, N.Y., affiliate of OppenheimerFunds Inc., plans to add to its lineup of registered hedge funds by launching two tax-efficient funds this summer. Barry Colvin, newly named president of Tremont, says the...

Subpart F extended. (At the Bell).
March 11, 2002... A five-year extension of Subpart F tax provisions sought by the financial services industry was included in the economic stimulus bill passed by a 417-3 vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday and by an 85-9 vote in the Senate on...

Calvert funds join Pa.'s 529 plan. (At the Bell).
March 11, 2002... Two mutual funds offered by Calvert Group Ltd. in Bethesda, Md., will join the roster of portfolios available in Pennsylvania's 529 college savings plan. The funds will be offered alongside various funds sold by Delaware Investments of...

Lincoln Financial targets boomers. (At the Bell).
March 11, 2002... Lincoln Financial Group in Philadelphia, with $98 billion under management, is naming its annuity operations Lincoln Retirement, the company announced Thursday. The Fort Wayne, Ind., unit previously had no formal name. A spokeswoman...

A bond guru's advice: Stick with stocks. (Insights & Analysis).
March 11, 2002... Andy Carter, chairman of Hyperion Capital Management Inc., a fixed-income company in New York that manages more than $7 billion, mostly institutional, is regarded by many as the father of active bond management. Before Andy began to manage...

Star search may put you in spotlight. (Tips, Trends & Observations).
March 11, 2002... National auditions are going on for financial advisers who love an audience. You don't have to look like a Brad Pitt or a Julia Roberts; you need only have charisma and a knack for making financial concepts fun and engaging. The...

13 years later, Pitt delivers. (Tips, Trends & Observations).
March 11, 2002... Talk about a delayed reaction. A letter sent by Ram Trust Services in Portland, Maine, to securities regulators regarding fund managers' proxy-voting powers got an answer last month. The kicker? "We've been waiting more than 13...

Exec White-out at Waterhouse. (Tips, Trends & Observations).
March 11, 2002... Peter Mangan, chief operating officer of mutual funds for TD Waterhouse USA, will be leaving the New York firm by the end of spring to return to California. Mr. Mangan was instrumental in creating Waterhouse's supermarket of 11,217 funds, and...

No-risk hedge fund is no oxymoron: Rider guarantees initial investment.
March 11, 2002... Financial advisers still looking for a reason to allocate client assets into hedge funds might find it in an insurance rider that guarantees return of the initial investment. At least that's the idea behind a new investment product, the...

Designation debate flares over exchange of letters: Dissident group wants CFP mark extended to ChFCs.
March 11, 2002... A small group of dissidents thinks it's found a smoking gun in the smoldering debate over financial planning designations. The Concerned Planners Group last week launched a new drive to pressure the Certified Financial Planner Board of...

A defining moment arrives for ETFs: Brouhaha rises over what funds fit the bill.
March 11, 2002... Only the most discerning investor could tell--or would care--whether closed-end funds are exchange-traded funds or merely funds that trade on an exchange. But that hasn't stopped a brewing storm over what constitutes one of the newest...

Greenspan speaks with forked tongue. (The Week in Review).
March 11, 2002... Only Alan Greenspan can talk out of both sides of his mouth and still leave you scratching your head. The Federal Reserve chairman Thursday declared the U.S. recession over and said an expansion was already "well under way." While...

Reviving the living. (The Week in Review).
March 11, 2002... Talk about too little too late. Congress last week passed and sent to President Bush an economic stimulus package that extends unemployment benefits and gives billions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses. The Senate voted 85-9 for the...

Fidelity: 39% drop is 'respectable'. (The Week in Review).
March 11, 2002... Memo to Edward C. Johnson III: Reality sometimes nips instead of bites. Fidelity Investments, which is run by Mr. Johnson, reported Wednesday that profits fell 39% last year to $1.3 billion. Revenue at the Boston mutual fund giant dropped 11.6%...

Buffett's buffet: Energy companies. (The Week in Review).
March 11, 2002... The Buff Man is feeling quite energetic. The stock picker's stock picker is on the prowl for more acquisitions of U.S. utilities. "We are looking at the full chain of energy assets," David Sokol, chairman and CEO of MidAmerican Energy...

A poke in the eye, not a parachute. (The Week in Review).
March 11, 2002... So much for any hopes of making a graceful exit. Conseco Inc. on Wednesday announced that its chief financial officer, Chuck Chokel, was leaving to "pursue other interests" after only a year on the job. After the news media called Mr....

Two in house push IRA payout deferral: Cardin, Portman plan a new reform bill.
March 11, 2002... The two honchos of retirement legislation are plotting to resurrect their plans to ease regulations on pensions. Reps. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Ben Cardin, D-Md., are canvassing retirement groups in Washington to get input for their next...

Book still open on PNC's juggling: Stock overcomes accounting boo-boos, but some wary of future misstep.
March 11, 2002... Compared with the Enron blowup, the accounting problems at PNC Financial Services Group Inc. are considered boo-boos rather than bombshells. For the most part, the Pittsburgh banking company's stock price has rebounded after two...

Defense still best offense at Raymond James: Firm plans staff cuts as trading volume lags.
March 11, 2002... To weather the storm that lit the markets two years ago, Thomas James, chairman and chief executive of Raymond James Financial Inc., knew he had to shore up his ship. Last year, he cut the firm's staff by 5%, or almost 250 workers, mainly...

Emerging-tech shop branching out: Amerindo sees big opportunity in private equity.
March 11, 2002... Coming through the worst bear market in its sector's history, Amerindo Funds, an emerging-technology shop in New York, last month decided to add private-equity investments to its mutual fund portfolios - an unusual move that it hopes will...

Amid outcry for reform, the ICI is strangely mute. (Editorial).
March 11, 2002... Shaking out the excesses of the dot-com era and the 10-year economic boom has proved to be a painful process, but the really tough job still lies ahead. Along the way to wiping out several trillion dollars in market value, the tech stock...

Investors need advisers, and advisers need prudence: The rules of the investment game have not changed. Proper diversification and staying the course are essential. (Ideas and Analysis).
March 11, 2002... The need for and value of professional investment advice seldom has been as high as it is today With the uncertainty of war and the shape of the economic recovery in doubt, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 100 points one day and down 100...

Correspondence.
March 11, 2002... Legislating investment tramples right to invest I was disturbed by Mercer Bullard's opinion piece regarding President Bush's and Congress' solutions for the "wrong" Enron problem [InvestmentNews, Feb. 18]. Mr. Bullard argues that...

Bond trading dot-coms have been dot-bombs.
March 11, 2002... Twenty-one electronic platforms for trading fixed-income securities disappeared in 2001, and more are expected to go away this year. Like many dot-coms, electronic bond-trading platforms suffered when cash from venture capitalists and other...

New fund wants its managers to compete: Would tie some pay to performance versus fund's other stock pickers.
March 11, 2002... Nothing stokes the fires Lit competition like money. Quintara Capital Management, a startup mutual fund company in Piedmont, Calif., seems to have that figured out. The firm, which was founded in August by fund industry veteran Matthew...

Portfolio manager keeps balance by hanging ten: A passion for surfing has shaped his career.
March 11, 2002... There aren't many money managers who get stoked about ripping a point break like Sam Ballam, partner at Cooke & Bieler LP in Philadelphia. In fact, probably there aren't many who know what that means. But Mr. Ballam, unlike most...

Hancock's next act to enter stage left: Buying little-known funds, hoping to make them stars.
March 11, 2002... Amid signs of turmoil within its ranks, John Hancock Funds is ready to play the role of stage mother. Now all it needs are a few child stars. The Boston-based company the asset management arm of insurer John Hancock Financial Services...

Tech no panacea to boost customer relations: Heavy spending aside, IT solutions elusive.
March 11, 2002... Whether it's cross-selling, upselling or hand-holding, most financial services companies share a conviction that nurturing existing customers is the most profitable thing to do in this market. To manage those relationships, many financial...

A devastated WTC bond trader guts it out: Resolve restores pre-Sept. 11 levels.
March 11, 2002... At 7:57 a.m. on a sunny winter day, Gil Scharf leaves his apartment on East End Avenue. Like so many other things, his commute has changed. He hustles a few blocks to catch the 8 a.m. ferry, which smoothly sails to lower Manhattan. The sun...

Financial engines revs up waterhouse conference. (Meetings, Conventions & Hearings).
March 11, 2002... TD Waterhouse Institutional Services is 15 times smaller than its largest competitor in terms of assets. But the New York-based upstart's conference is at least half as good. The Partnership 2002 Conference in Orlando, Fla., was more than a...

Nationwide's pitch: Variable life made simple. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... Nationwide Financial Services Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, has introduced Advantage Flexible Premium Variable Universal Life, which is designed to simplify the sales, application and underwriting process for both clients and registered...

Manulife calculator runs 529s' numbers. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... Manulife College Savings, a Baltimore subsidiary of Toronto-based Manulife Financial Corp., has launched a calculator that enables financial consultants to help clients estimate the value of their state's tax deduction for contributing to their...

A SMART saver for college costs. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... Hartford Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. in Simsbury, Conn., has introduced SMART 529, a college savings program. It offers: * Federal-income-tax-free withdrawals for qualified...

Zurich service eschews paper. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... Zurich Life in Schaumburg, Ill., has launched a paperless term life pre-application service. The online service has five input screens. Underwriting agents can enter the applicant's data and then review it for accuracy. The...

Forward lowers investment floor. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... Forward Management LLC in San Francisco has lowered the minimum initial investment for its no-load Forward Funds to $100. The minimum was $2,500 for non-retirement accounts and $250 for retirement accounts. The Forward Funds is a...

Public data book on corporations. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... Thomson Financial in New York now offers Thomson ePIB, a web-based tool for investment bankers and other financial professionals. Thomson ePIB electronically collects documents from financial databases and assembles a customized public...

AXP adds value, fixed-income funds. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... American Express Financial Advisors in Minneapolis has added two mutual funds to its AXP lineup. AXP Mid Cap Value Fund will invest in companies whose stock is trading below market value. AXP U.S. Government Mortgage Fund will invest...

Risk diversification checkup for 401(k)s. (New Products, Services).
March 11, 2002... The 401k CheckUp, a new application from RiskMetrics Group in New York, quantifies the level of risk and diversification in retirement portfolios. It helps individual investors spot inadequate diversification in their retirement portfolios by...

Sandler O'Neill hire is banking on the staff's spirit. (Brian Sterling).
March 11, 2002... Brian Sterling has joined a firm that has spent the past six months struggling to regain its footing. He began work last month as an investment banking principal with Sandier O'Neill & Partners LP. The boutique investment bank lost 66 of...

Moving up: Hirings & promotions.
March 11, 2002... * Raymond James Financial Inc. in St. Petersburg, Fla, has named Chester Helck, 49, president and chief operating officer. He replaces Francis Godbold, 58, who has been elected vice chairman and will serve as an adviser to the chairman and...

Small-caps come up biggest, and the price is right. (Equity Fund Expenses).
March 11, 2002... Small-caps come up biggest, and the price is right EMERGING MARKETS EXPENSE 1-YEAR ASSETS FUND RATIO RETURN ($M) LOWEST COST ...

Investment Watch.
March 11, 2002... At a glance: Advent Software Inc. 2001 revenues: $170.2 million 2001 earnings: $31.5 million 2000: $134.9 million 2000: $25.8 million 52-week high: $69.04 52-week low: $28.60 P/e: 66.11 Price/book: 4.91 ...

Are hedge funds worth fees? Index fund says no. (Commentary).
March 11, 2002... What's so special about hedge fund managers? Not much, according to the big thinkers at Mt. Lucas Management Corp., where they have devised a way to mirror hedge fund performance without any of the high fees or mysterious trading strategies....

"People say: 'How much lower can [interest rates] go?' Well, they can go a hell of a lot lower". (One on One).
March 11, 2002... WITH DON S. PETERS OF CENTRAL PLAINS ADVISORS INC. From the front porch of Don S. Peters' home, you can see across miles of Kansas cornfields. But the owner of Central Plains Advisors Inc. in Wichita sees something bigger and more lucrative...

Adviser to register a new hedge fund. (At the Bell).
March 12, 2002... * Yankee Advisers LLC, a Waltham, Mass., hedge fund management company, is planning to launch a registered version of its flagship Yankee Multi-Manager Fund LP in June. The new fund will still require investors to meet certain net worth...

Van Kampen wins Alabama 529 role. (At the Bell).
March 12, 2002... * Alabama has chosen Van Kampen Investments Inc. in Villa Park, Ill., as the investment manager of its Section 529 college savings plans, the state treasurer's office will announce tomorrow. Alabama's will be the first 529 plan to be...

NASD floats plan for emergency data. (At the Bell).
March 12, 2002... * Brokerage firms would have to create a business-continuity plan and supply the National Association of Security Dealers Inc. with emergency contact information under a proposal made by the association late last week. As a result of the...

Pa. adviser to offer FOLIOfn service. (At the Bell).
March 12, 2002... * Brinker Capital, an investment adviser and consultant, is teaming up with FOLIOfn Inc., to offer insurance brokers more sophisticated portfolios. Barker French, a principal with Brinker in Valley Forge, Pa., says FOLIOfn's technology...