Money Management Executive Latest News

Although American investors have grown much more aware of the risks of investing in stocks and have lower expectations for average annual returns, they do still plan to keep them as an integral part of their retirement portfolios, according to a Vanguard survey conducted in late May.

Russell Investments has introduced Russell Enhanced Asset Allocation, which using forecasting models to identify unsustainable movements in the market and map out a plan to maximize returns while limiting risk and maintaining adequate liquidity. The strategy covers 11 geographic regions and 11 asset classes and produces 114 asset class pair combinations.

In anticipation of the great demand for retirement income products by Baby Boomers as they begin to retire, financial services companies are working hard to develop products and services to capture this “money in motion,” according to Deloitte.

The sell-off in municipals last week finally stemmed the tide of cash that had flooded municipal bond mutual funds for the better part of a year. Investors entrusted $615 million to municipal funds during the week ended Oct. 14, according to Lipper FMI. That is the puniest slug of money poured into muni funds since April.

Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded the long-term senior debt of FMR, the parent company of Fidelity, from A2 to A1, citing profit margins not meeting expectations.

Invesco is acquiring the retail asset management business of Morgan Stanley, including Van Kampen, for $1.5 billion in cash and stock. Invesco is paying $500 million in cash and tendering 44.1 million shares representing $1 billion in Invesco equity that will give Morgan Stanley a 9.4% minority stake. Morgan will continue to manage $267 billion in institutional assets.

In May 2009, Broadridge Financial Solutions, a leading global provider of technology solutions to the financial services industry, acquired Access Data Corp. Access Data provides enterprise-wide reporting and data management services to asset managers and financial intermediaries. Its technology platform, Access Data SalesVision®, is currently utilized by more than 40 firms to support distribution, administer wholesaler compensation and distribution payments and manage shareholder compliance.

Brockgreiten in Key Client Role at Access Data Corp.

83% of Fund Managers Expect Earnings To Increase Sharply in Third Quarter

U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, with more than 40 years of experience in servicing mutual funds, recently obtained the ISO 9001 certification for its transfer agent services. Money Management Executive recently spoke with Ian Martin, executive vice president, transfer agent, about this process and how its Knowledge Management System played a key role.