Portfolio

Janus paid its chief executive officer $7 million, including bonus, in 2008, a 27.8% pay cut, a Securities and Exchange Commission proxy filing indicates.

Hennessy Advisors has acquired the Tamarack Large Cap Growth Fund and the Tamarack Value Fund, which hold $158 million in assets between them. Voyageur Asset Management, a division of RBC Asset Management, was the investment advisor before.

New York Life has added insurance to its charitable gift annuity program to make it more attractive to investors and charities like. Because the stock market’s performance has been so weak, not to mention increasing longevity, the obligation of charitable gift annuities to continue to pay donors an income for life has put undue financial risks on the charities that offer them.

PIMCO and BlackRock are two of the first mutual fund companies to sign up for the Treasury Department’s new program to purchase troubled assets—PIMCO as both a buyer and manager of debt and BlackRock only as a manager. Other fixed-income fund shops are likely to sign up as well, Geoff Bobroff of Bobroff Consulting told Dow Jones.

Because the credit markets and asset values are at the very heart of the economic crisis, these areas will have to strengthen before the economy improves, according to Fidelity Investments, Bloomberg reports. As such, financial services will have to be the first area to improve, and it will lead the way out of the recession.

FINRA has fined 25 broker/dealers for failure to complete self-assessments related to providing mutual fund breakpoints between 2001 and 2002.

Industry watchers are stunned that Vanguard, a champion of low fees, has caved in to the realities of lower assets by raising fees on 31 of its 110 funds, albeit a scant average of 0.05%. But the truth is, poor market performance has ravaged assets at many fund shops, and grappling with lower assets, they are looking for ways to control costs, MarketWatch reports.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Andrew Donohue, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Investment Management, said Monday that he doesn't think the SEC will push for changes to rule 12b-1 govering mutual fund fees this year.

Fidelity Investments has hired Christopher Sullivan to serve as head of its bond group, in charge of $170 billion of assets under management.

Even as it continues to lay off 3,000, Fidelity Investments is looking for talented analysts and investment professionals as it seeks to restructure and strengthen its capabilities in the midst of the economic downturn, The Boston Globe reports.