Money Management Executive Latest News

In 1998, when Charles Schwab and Ariel Mutual Funds conducted their first annual Black Investor Survey at the premier Ariel-Schwab Black Investor Summit, 57% of Blacks said they owned stocks or mutual funds. Today, that number remains unchanged. However, in 2002, it peaked at 74%, while in the past 10 years, the number of Whites who own stocks or mutual funds has hovered around 80%.

In an attempt to head off regulation, hedge funds in Europe are proposing that they will voluntarily become more transparent about their holdings, risk management, governance and valuation techniques, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Fidelity Investments will ask shareholders early next year for permission to split the board of directors overseeing its mutual funds in two. The aim is to better monitor the complex securities its portfolio managers are increasingly gravitating to.

AIG is planning to offer higher-yield insurance products in China, China Daily reports.

Manulife Financial and Bank of Montreal are both well positioned to bid for U.S. financial service firms, The Toronto Star reports, citing reports from analysts this week.

Daiwa Securities, the second-biggest brokerage in Japan and the leading provider of separately managed accounts, is taking the formula down market with mutual fund wrap accounts, executives said at the Reuters Wealth Summit in Tokyo.

Although it has been three years since Janus paid $226 million to settle market-timing charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission has taken three former Janus executives, Warren Lammert, Lars Soderberg and Lance Newcomb, to trial for market timing, the Rocky Mountain News reports.

Barclays Global Investors on Wednesday introduced a new suite of investment solutions specifically tailored for company matches in 401(k) plans—the first DC solution specifically designed for matches.

Hedge funds, as measured by the HFN Hedge Fund Aggregate Average, posted their best one-month return in four years last month, rising 3.27%. It was also their second-best one-month return in eight years. Year to date through the first nine months, they are up 9.4%.

Presidential candidate Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday proposed government-sponsored 401(k)s that she called American Retirement Accounts, in which people could invest up to $5,000 a year, the Associated Press reports.