Money Management Executive Latest News

The trend of pension funds and endowments shifting money to international stocks and hedge funds will most likely continue, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Charles Schwab recently rolled out a new website to help parents and grandparents teach kids about the basics of money management.

Investing in the stocks of companies related to alcohol, tobacco and gambling is a good bet, according to a study from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver Sun reports.

A former MFS Investment Management bond fund manager has sued the U.S. Treasury to obtain access to their files that he says is critical to his defense in a case the Securities and Exchange Commission has brought against him, The Patriot Ledger reports. Steven Nothern filed the suit, claiming that under the Freedom of Information Act, he should have access to the documents.

Acting more like aggressive hedge funds, mutual funds are increasingly expressing their opinions about how the companies they own should be run, The Wall Street Journal reports. OppenheimerFunds’ rejection of the management at Take-Two Interactive Software is just the beginning of an new activist movement among mutual funds, although it is the first time in the company’s 46 years in business that it has wrangled with management.

A new report from Citigroup indicates that as investors in emerging markets funds and stocks increase their holdings, they are seeking better disclosure and transparency, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Proving that Chinese investors continue to be overwhelmingly optimistic about their stock markets, sales of mutual funds hit a record high on Tuesday, People’s Daily reports—and for good reason. The Shanghai Composite Index, which rose 130% in 2006, is already up 27.6% this year.

Nine open-end mutual funds out of a select screen have 20% or more of their assets in a single stock, and have suffered as a result, TheStreet.com reports. The website screened for funds with minimum initial investments of $50,000 or less and that aren’t structured as funds-of-funds.

The Mutual Fund Store has hired David Byers as chief executive officer. Byers previously was chief operating officer for H&R Block, which he joined in 1999 as chief marketing officer.

Two researchers, from the American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution, are calling for the deregulation of the mutual fund industry, The Wall Street Journal reports. Senior Fellows Peter Wallison of American Enterprise and Robert Litan of Brookings say that fund investors would be better served if funds set fees on their own, without oversight of fund directors. They make their case in a book they’ve just published, “Competitive Equity: A Better Way to Organize Mutual Funds.”