Money Management Executive Latest News

Jitters over market turmoil appears to be good business for financial advisers and brokers or individuals placing individual trades, and that, in turn, is good new for companies such as Fidelity Investments, whose brokerage division saw assets rise in the second quarter by 2% to $1.92 trillion.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. urged Congress to finish legislation that would create a regulator for government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and financially shore up the two mortgage financing giants.

Baby Boomers preparing to fund their retirement years have fueled an annuity sales boom at banking companies since the spring of 2007, and regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of financial services institutions that sell them.

Volatile financial markets forced hedge fund net inflows to their lowest level last quarter since the fourth quarter of 2005. Inflows fell 78.7%, to $12.5 billion, in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to data released Friday by Hedge Fund Research.

Barclays is planning to launch a family of target-date and target-risk exchange-traded funds, drawing from its existing iShares, Dow Jones reports. The percentage of equity holdings will range from 91% to 58%.

When the House of Representatives holds a hearing on the merits of 401(k) debit cards, and even Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, says tapping into that equity might be a “creative way to stimulate the economy”—you know they pose a serious threat to both the mutual fund industry and investors’ retirement.

President and CEO of Federated Investors, J. Christopher Donahue, recently announced Federated's acquisition of the Prudent Bear and Prudent Global Income Funds from David W. Tice & Associates at an initial price of $43 million with future contingent payments over the next four years of up to $100 million. These funds have an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion and $502 million, respectively. Federated has begun formulating contracts with current managers of the two funds, including Doug Noland and Patrick Ryan Bend. David W. Tice, will follow these funds to Federated, where he will become the chief portfolio strategist.

Ameriprise Financial finalized a $440 million deal to purchase J&W Seligman in the fourth quarter. The addition of Seligman will provide Ameriprise with additional outlets to sell its mutual funds and further improve its hedge fund business. "This transaction reinforces our growth strategy, and in particular our efforts to grow our higher-margin businesses," Chief Executive Officer James Cracchiolo said in a statement.

State Street Corp. believes market conditions will make it difficult for his Boston company to maintain its strong second-quarter growth, but he hopes to weather the second half by focusing on core businesses, cutting expenses and attracting new customers.

The European Union proposed a new set of rules Thursday to make Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) even more efficient by eliminating additional regulatory hurdles. Most notably, the rules- which will replace 10 directives with just one and go into effect in 2011-will allow cross-border mergers of funds, making Europe's mutual fund industry more efficient. They will also permit master-feeder structures and eliminate much of the administrative paperwork currently required to market funds to other markets in the European Union of 27 member states.