Money Management Executive Latest News

Annuity products can work well for those seeking to convert retirement savings to retirement income, but they’re not for everyone.

At some summer camps, children learn to make macramé. At others, they learn to make millions, and keep it.

Michael J. Rice, former executive director and president of the private client group at Prudential Securities, settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges he failed to supervise registered reps who permitted their hedge fund clients to market time mutual funds between 2000 and 2003. Without admitting to or denying wrongdoing, Rice is paying a $100,000 fine and will be suspended from supervising broker/dealers for a year.

While we will certainly give credit to Eliot "The Steamroller" Spitzer for taking on illicit trading and sales activities in the mutual fund industry while he was New York attorney general, we wondered why, when he was running for governor, he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars from hedge funds, which, after all, were at the heart of the scandal. It's entirely possible some of the funds that showered Spitzer with money conducted market timing or late trading. That would make his acceptance of their contributions a serious conflict of interest and, possibly, a tacit agreement not to indict them.

Presidential candidate John Edwards, in a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, proposed increasing taxes on those earning more than $200,000 a year, as well as hedge fund investors. He would also put limits on executive pensions and end some tax breaks for multinational corporations.

Morgan Stanley’s alternative investment arm is launching a fund-of-funds specializing in global long/short equity strategies, according to HedgeWorld.com. The fund will be offered to qualified investors at $1,000 per share, with the initial closing date some time in 2008, according to a preliminary prospectus.

The consolidation of the NASD and the New York Stock Exchange into the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority received final regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission last week, according to Reuters.

Although the problems in the subprime mortgage and corporate debt markets are gaining steam slowly, they are certainly real and likely to lead to a serious economic downtown, BusinessWeek Online reports.

Failed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors and two traders have been accused of manipulating the natural gas markets by federal regulators and may face $291 million in penalties, according to The New York Times. The Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund shuttered its doors last year after it lost $6 billion.

Citigroup's Smith Barney division has agreed to pay $50 million to settle market-timing charges by the New York Stock Exchange and New Jersey regulators. Of the $50 million total, $40 million will go to investors who were harmed by the activity.