Money Management Executive Latest News

When the subprime market became shaky in February, Gyan Sinha, a Bear Stearns analyst, held a conference call of 900 investors, telling them they had little need to worry. However, that was not the case, according to The Wall Street Journal Asia.

BISYS Retirement Services, a division of the BISYS Group, has acquired Fargo, N.D.-based Frontier Trust Company from AXA Financial, adding over $12 billion in assets under management to the fold.

Ibbotson Associates has received a patent on its portfolio model, which allows individual investors portfolios to be created on the concept of financial and human capital.

Bond exchange-traded funds are touting their contributions to market transparency in the thinly traded, splintered fixed income market, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Having spent the seven years restructuring since it first entered the U.S., Old Mutual Asset Management is now prepared to expand its business here, Dow Jones reports. The firm, which at one point ran 40 different investment firms under its banner, will expand its both its retail and institutional products.

Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin said Wednesday he is investigating Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and other broker/dealers over sales of complex investments, particularly structured products and annuities, Reuters reports.

The NASD announced Wednesday that it has fined Securities America $375,000 for improperly sharing $280,000 in directed-brokerage commissions, plus other payments, with former broker Michael Bullock, a 16-year veteran of the firm who worked in the Los Angeles area. The NASD also said that Securities America failed to properly supervise Bullock to ensure that his disclose his directed-brokerage commissions to his union-sponsored retirement plan clients.

Legg Mason announced Tuesday that it is launching two new separately managed accounts that will give retail investors access to fixed income instruments not typically available in an SMA.

Due to worries about the subprime woes affecting the mortgage market and the risks of high-yield bonds, investors are moving their money out of mutual funds that specialize in these sectors and into better-quality bond funds, such as Treasuries, which are enjoying rising yields, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has raised the ethical standard guidelines for the 55,000 planners in the nation with CFP credentials, in order for investors to get better help in selecting among increasingly complex financial choices.