Money Management Executive Latest News

Hedge funds are singing a new tune when it comes to customer service, the Deseret Morning News reports. After losing 37% of assets in 2008 to poor performance and withdrawals, hedge funds are traveling to see clients, rather than have them meet in their offices.

High-yield bond funds lost an average of 26% in 2008, but the range of the performance was astounding, Andrew “Buddy” Donohue, director of the SEC division of investment management noted in a speech Thursday before the Practising Law Institute—ranging a full 85 percentage points between 7% for the best-performing fund to negative 78% for the worst-performing. And ranges proved to be incredibly wide for all asset classes, with 70% of actively managed funds underperforming their benchmarks in 2008, Donohue noted.

Eaton Vance Distributors has launched the Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Bond Strategies Fund, succeeding a similar private investment fund that was formed in 1991.

American Century Investment Management and Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company won "Best Fund Group Overall" honors in the large and small fund company categories, respectively, at the U.S. Lipper Fund Awards 2009 ceremony held Thursday evening in New York.

Investors started moving cash off the sidelines and back into equities, as witnessed by a $22.15 billion drop to $3.834 trillion in total money market mutual fund assets for the week ending April 1, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Hedge funds were not the speculators that caused the financial crisis. Blame it on the banks.

Assets in Barclays’ iShares ETFs in Asia ex-Japan rose by 43.7% in 2008 to $4.3 billion and globally, iShares took in $89 billion in new assets, up 27% from inflows of $70 billion in 2007.

Without divulging the figure, AARP said “many” Americans it surveyed are still committed to saving and investing for retirement. Most respondents said that they believe the current market turmoil has slowed their retirement progress, but will not halt it.

Companies can reduce labor costs and retain key talent for continued smooth operations by considering phased retirement, Deloitte recommends. And for workers, it protects their retirement income for a longer period of time.

OppenheimerFunds has announced that it is making changes intended to strengthen its business operations and enhance risk management capabilities.