Money Management Executive Latest News

Global insurance giant AIG sold more than $10.8 billion worth of annuities in the second quarter of 2008—more than any other insurer—and Lehman Brothers’ Neuberger Berman mutual funds managed more than $250 billion.

Bowing into pressure from banks and thrifts, the Department of the Treasury clarified its promise to guarantee money market mutual funds late Sunday. The government will insure money market mutual funds’ $1 net asset value for a year for investments in funds as of close of business last Friday.

Given the tremendous market turbulence of the past week, AMG Data Services data through Wednesday shows mutual fund investors holding steady.

The phone lines were jammed at financial advisers’ offices throughout the week as average investors called to find out just what the heck was happening on Wall Street.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced early Friday it has set aside $50 billion from The Exchange Stabilization Fund to insure that no fund in the $3.4 trillion money market fund industry “breaks the buck” for the next year.

Putnam Investments announced Thursday that it was liquidating the institutional Putnam Prime Money Market Fund and distributing the fund’s $15 billion in assets due to marketwide liquidity issues and high redemptions on Wednesday, rather than to exposure to uncreditworthy investments in AIG, Lehman Brothers or Washington Mutual.

Shareholders filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Thursday against Reserve Funds’ Primary Fund for halting redemption of holdings of $10,000 or more on Tuesday due to the fund falling to 97 cents on the dollar.

Charging that Lord Abbett misleadingly marketed Class A shares on 21 of its funds as offering superior performance than lower-cost Class B and Class C shares, which actually delivered identical performance, investors sued the company Thursday. The investors took issue with paying a 5.75% sales charge on the Class A shares.

Jeffrey Gundlach, chief investment officer of TCW Group, ticked off a host of cataclysmic forecasts for the financial services industry in a client conference call Wednesday that he titled “No Market for Old Men,” MarketWatch reports.

Dreyfus is planning to offer the Dreyfus Sustainability Fund, a capital growth fund that will invest in environmentally friendly companies that are committed to “sustainable operating practices, products and services,” a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows.