Money Management Executive Latest News

Sixty-seven percent of asset managers surveyed by Russell Investments said corporate bonds look attractive, 61% are bullish on junk bonds, and 57% are optimistic about equities. This is the first time in five years that money managers have had a more favorable outlook on fixed income than on stocks.

A last-minute Bush administration regulation that would permit advice in 401(k) plans was called into question Tuesday by a number of consumer advocates and other experts who testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Legg Mason has laid off 120 employees, 20 of whom worked in mutual fund administration and 100 of whom worked in its Western Asset Management subsidiary.

While the economy has hit most asset managers and investors hard, the top 25 hedge funds earned a breathtaking $11.6 billion in pay last year, according to Alpha Magazine.

Fund giants headquartered in Boston, still one of the biggest capitals for mutual fund companies in the nation, have taken a particularly hard hit, Boston Business Journal reports, losing an estimated $500 billion over the past year.

Target-date funds continue to take the heat for buckling under the pressures of the market’s decline.

Janus paid its chief executive officer $7 million, including bonus, in 2008, a 27.8% pay cut, a Securities and Exchange Commission proxy filing indicates.

Hennessy Advisors has acquired the Tamarack Large Cap Growth Fund and the Tamarack Value Fund, which hold $158 million in assets between them. Voyageur Asset Management, a division of RBC Asset Management, was the investment advisor before.

New York Life has added insurance to its charitable gift annuity program to make it more attractive to investors and charities like. Because the stock market’s performance has been so weak, not to mention increasing longevity, the obligation of charitable gift annuities to continue to pay donors an income for life has put undue financial risks on the charities that offer them.

PIMCO and BlackRock are two of the first mutual fund companies to sign up for the Treasury Department’s new program to purchase troubled assets—PIMCO as both a buyer and manager of debt and BlackRock only as a manager. Other fixed-income fund shops are likely to sign up as well, Geoff Bobroff of Bobroff Consulting told Dow Jones.