Money Management Executive Latest News

While getting their employees to participate in the 401(k) plan continues to be a concern of sponsors, they are increasingly interested in making sure that these employees invest their money wisely, according to a plan sponsor survey by Hewitt Associates.

It's been four years since Noreen Harrington has appeared on the scene, but she recently spoke before an industry group on why she blew the whistle on the market timing and late trading at Canary Capital, setting off the shocking scandal that rocked the fund industry, cost it $5 billion in fines and nearly tarnished its reputation forever.

Legg Mason posted very strong returns in the third quarter, but they were marred by poor fund performance and $9.6 billion in net redemptions from its stock funds, Bloomberg reports.

Pioneer Investments is planning to open an office in China to take advantage of the August extension of rules in the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor (QDII) scheme allowing Chinese investors to invest in foreign stocks and equity-linked structured products, Reuters reports. Previously, QDII only permitted overseas investments in money market funds and bonds.

In its annual survey of 1,000 401(k) and profit-sharing plans, the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America found that 41% of plans had automatic enrollment during the 2006 plan year.

Although money market funds are required to only hold short-term paper with “minimal credit risks,” a number of large funds have exposure to subprime loans through offshore structured investment vehicles (SIVs), Fortune reports.

With two bills already introduced in the House and one pending in the Senate that would require 401(k) fee disclosure, coupled with the Department of Labor’s interest in the matter and the cooperation of so many American businesses, fund companies can definitely expect to be hit with this new rule, workforce.com reports.

The Department of Labor has decided not to include stable-value funds as one of its recommended default options for 401(k) plans under the Pension Protection Act. Instead, the DOL is advocating balanced funds, lifecycle funds and a professionally managed, diversified portfolio as the default choices.

LAS VEGAS-Fund companies are using new Web 2.0 technologies and customer relationship management (CRM) software to leverage relationships with financial advisers, according to experts at The National Investment Company Service Association Technology Summit 2007 last week.

WASHINGTON-The Securities and Exchange Commission is interested in reducing mutual fund operational risk, improving disclosure and helping boards better assess soft dollars, according to Andrew J. Donohue, director of the division of investment management.