Portfolio

Waddell & Reed is planning to first offer employees voluntary layoff packages next month, and depending on how that goes, will hand out pink slips the following week, the Kansas City Star reports. The goal is to reduce payroll costs by 15%.

Morningstar has acquired the business operations of InvestData of South Africa, a fund data provider, for undisclosed terms.

More than 110,000 people working in finance in the U.S. have lost their jobs so far this year, but that could nearly double to more than 200,000 in the final weeks of the year, the Anniston Star reports.

With redemptions reaching exceptionally high levels, mutual funds are hoarding cash like never before, BusinessWeek reports. Funds lost $68 billion in October and appear to be on track to top those losses this month. By comparison, in October 2007, mutual funds lost $11.3 billion and $9.94 billion the following month.

Reserve Funds will distribute $14 billion to investors in the Primary Fund on or around Dec. 5.

Even as equity values continue to fall and economic woes mount, certain financial services firms will emerge as leaders, and the ones that do will be those that focus on long-term success, according to a report released Monday by management consulting firm Casey, Quirk & Associates and asset management compensation consulting firm McLagan, titled “Crisis in Asset Management: Industry Profitability Under Siege.”

Massachusetts lost another 7,000 in October, the worst month for the state’s labor market since March 2005, the Patriot Ledger reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed two- to four-page mutual fund prospectus profiles will only provide investors with the “quick-and-dirty lowdown,” charges Dow Jones columnist Chuck Jaffe. “It seems a bit inappropriate to have investment decisions based on information that can accurately be called ‘quick and dirty,’ rather than ‘thorough and complete,’” Jaffe said.

Monagle to Assist Reserve As Liquidation Adviser

EU to Propose Hedge Fund, Private Equity Regs