Portfolio

General American Settles With SEC for $3.3M

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the asset management industry is booming, and demand is not likely to stop anytime soon, nor are the competitive prices buyers are willing to pay for the deals. However, market turmoil and a more challenging leveraged finance environment could temporarily cool the enthusiasm of some private equity shops for asset managers and derail initial public offerings,

The acquisition of CheckFree Corp. of Norcross, Ga., by Fiserv of Brookfield, Wis., announced on Aug. 2, has raised questions as to whether CheckFree's investment services division will stay or go, perhaps being independently sold off to the highest bidder. The unit provides the separately managed account (SMA) technology, including client reporting and portfolio management, for investment managers and broker/dealers.

While mutual fund companies and investment banks have had meteorologists on their trading desks for almost 30 years, the practice apparently is increasing-affecting portfolio managers' trading decisions not only of commodities, power, utilities, agriculture and energy securities, but also consumer goods, transportation, construction, infrastructure, shipping and leisure. In addition, in the past 10 years, the insight of meteorologists on the trading floor has led to the development of weather risk management tools-futures, derivatives and insurance.

With a new Internal Revenue Service requirement about to require 403(b) sponsors to assume fiduciary duty, much as 401(k) sponsors do, and pare back the number of offerings, the sponsors are inevitably going to scrutinize their plan administrators.

The Pension Protection Act ushered in far-reaching changes to 401(k) plans, including fiduciary protection for providers using automatic enrollment and default investments, and making permanent higher contribution levels and catch-up contributions for older workers.

Hedge funds must learn to open up a little while clamping down on operational risk management, according to a recent web presentation by Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu.

Implementing automatic enrollment and auto-escalation in 401(k) plans is a start in the effort to push employees to prepare for retirement, but it may not be enough.

While mutual fund companies and investment banks have had meteorologists on their trading desks for almost 30 years, the practice apparently is increasing-affecting portfolio managers' trading decisions not only of commodities, power, utilities, agriculture and energy securities, but also consumer goods, transportation, construction, infrastructure, shipping and leisure. In addition, in the past 10 years, the insight of meteorologists on the trading floor has led to the development of weather risk management tools-futures, derivatives and insurance.

GAO Suggests Incentives To Keep Workers Working