Money Management Executive Latest News

While companies around the world look to outsource business functions to India, at least one Indian bank is looking to do the reverse, Forbes reports. With India’s stock market expected to continue to deliver double-digit returns over the next several years, Kotak Mahindra is looking to investors around the world to raise assets. The bank has listed the close-end India Equities Fund on the Australian Stock Exchange after an initial public offering that raised $75 million from 3,000 investors, and there are plans to offer similar funds in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Currently, the bank is setting up a fund in Dubai. C. Jayaram, executive director at Kotak Mahindra, said he expects other banks to offer funds abroad as well, due to increasing interest among investors around the globe in India’s booming economy. “On a three-year horizon, we’re expecting year-on-year returns of at least 15% from the Indian markets,” Jayaram said. “How the fund fares will be a reflection of how the markets fare.” The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

Senior Securities and Exchange Commissioners seem to be flocking a new not-for-profit on the scene, according to Dow Jones. Cynthia Fornelli, former deputy director of the SEC’s Investment Management Division led the way to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ new Center for Audit Quality, now serving as the group’s executive director. Then came Jane Cobb, former SEC director of legislative affairs, who is the center’s operations director. Next is SEC’s former acting director of investor education, Lori Schock, who left the SEC Friday and will head up outreach at the Center for Audit Quality. SEC Chief Counsel in the Office of the Chief Accountant Robert Burns, will retire from his government post to become the center’s director of research. With Schock gone, it is unclear who will head the Investor Education Office at the SEC, which has a staff of 66 and which last year handled more than 77,000 calls, letters and e-mails. The last permanent leader of the division was Susan Wyderco who left to head the Mutual Fund Director’s Forum in June, 2006. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

If the Securities and Exchange Commission decides to eliminate 12b-1 fees, that would mean both good news and bad news for investors, Seattle Times reports. The good news is that the industry wouldn’t be able to misuse an antiquated fee to pay financial advisers with shareholders assets instead of increasing assets in the fund. The bad news is that fund companies would probably increase other fees to compensate. “The elimination of 12b-1 fees will drive up management fees, unquestionably,” said Mercer Bullard, founder of FundDemocracy.com. According to Morningstar, the majority of mutual funds charge 12b-1 fees, earning the industry $10 billion last year. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has likened 12b-1 fees to charging cable TV viewers and also running advertisements. “There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of evidence that 12b-1 fees are anything but a net drain on shareholder wealth,” said Edward O’Neal, an assistant professor of finance at Wake Forest University. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

The Bush administration pledged last week to improve fee disclosure in 401(k)s. The Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration is now accepting ideas on how to do so from the public and the investment management industry. The deadline for comments is July 24.

NEW YORK-When Alan Greenspan speaks, markets move and people listen. Usually.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.-Target-date funds will continue to increase in popularity due to their simplicity, automatic rebalancing and diversification, according to panelists at Financial Research Associates' "Target Date Lifecycle Funds" conference here last week.

A Kentucky lawsuit decided in early 2006, and a similar tax case now being tried in North Carolina, could spell the demise of single-state municipal bond funds as we know them.

In their zeal to cash in on the latest investment craze, fund companies all too often have displayed a lack of originality and bad timing when launching new funds. Since exchange-traded funds have taken all of the major indexes, those that have come late to the ETF rage have come out with incredibly narrow niche and enhanced index funds that defy logic.

Fidelity's New Campaign Focuses on Regular People

Hedge Funds Losing Luster Among Ultra-Wealthy