Money Management Executive Latest News

Companies are finding that pension plans are far too expensive to offer, despite the tax breaks, USA Today reports. Since the beginning of the year, at least 20 companies have frozen their pension plans; by comparison, that many companies did so throughout all of 2008.

Actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have not caught on as rapidly as asset managers would have liked, The Wall Street Journal reports. The 62 quantitative/actively managed ETFs on the market have amassed $2.67 billion, or an average of $43 million each. To reach profitability, it is generally assumed that a mutual fund must have $100 million of assets under management.

Long-time Fidelity Investments and Geode Capital Management veteran Jacques P. Perold has been named chief operating officer, asset management of the firm.

John Hancock Financial has named James R. Boyle president, in charge of all of the company’s core businesses, including long-term care insurance, variable annuities, 401(k)s, fixed products and mutual funds. He had been president of U.S. insurance.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. has created a web portal for its Managed Accounts Service, to make connectivity to the platform convenient and immediately accessible. The portal will be available in the third quarter.

Broadridge Financial Solutions has acquired Access Data Corp. to expand its offerings to the mutual fund industry, specifically Access Data’s unique data aggregation and data management solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Americans plan to continue cutting back on their spending, a survey by financial consulting firm AlixPartners found. Once the recession is over, they plan to spend only 86% of what they did before the crisis began. And their No. 1 goal is replenishing their 401(k) and other retirement savings.

A significant number of 401(k) assets held by workers who leave their jobs has been left behind in the old plans, Charles Schwab found in an analysis of the activity of workers since the first quarter of 2008.

Mary Schapiro, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, bridled against the proposal that the government create a consumer financial protection agency. Evidently, the SEC wants to maintain its regulatory control over mutual funds.

People investing for retirement in mutual funds should not pay capital gains taxes until those shares are sold, according to Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota). To keep retirement savings earning more money for a longer period of time, the senators have introduced the GROWTH (Generating Retirement Ownership Through Long-Term Holding) Act, which the Investment Company Institute supports.