Money Management Executive Latest News

MIAMI-Distributing retail products has become more complex, and fund companies have to realize it's no longer business as usual. That was the message from speakers at The National Investment Company Service Association's 25th Anniversary Annual Conference & Expo here last month.

NEW YORK-While BlackBerries buzzed with news of Alan Greenspan's warning of a "possible recession" and the worldwide chain-reaction sell-off triggered by the dip in Chinese markets, a panel of mutual fund managers here last Tuesday pitched products to protect investors against an economic slump.

If fund companies thought that the days of regulators pressing charges for questionable or illegal mutual fund trading, revenue sharing, gifts, directed brokerage or fund sales were over, they'd better think twice.

Securian Fin'l Promotes Eight Senior Managers

American Century Acquires $225M of Kopp Assets

New high-tech offerings-including wireless technology, virtual communication and online communities-are changing the dynamics of how fund companies communicate with customers.

Investors are chasing alpha and sophisticated clients are willing to pay premium fees for it, according to Bloomberg columnist Chet Currier.

Mutual fund sales and investment-banking fees boosted the Royal Bank of Canada’s first-quarter profits to a record high, according to Bloomberg. The bank raised its dividend 15 %, the most in at least a decade.

A new exchange-traded fund from PowerShares and Dorsey Wright & Associates promises to be truly technical, tracking 100 stocks on peer-performance and patterns, rather than executive interviews and financial statements, according to MarketWatch."When people hear technical analysis, they think of black magic or something," Tom Dorsey, the Richmond, Va.-based firm's president, said. "But our method is really about measuring supply and demand in the marketplace and quantifying those trends. Our process is very long-term in nature."

Investors are starting to withdraw assets out of mutual funds, according to MarketWatch. Investors took a net $2.39 billion from global equity mutual funds by last Thursday, according to TrimTabs Investment Research. The previous week, investors put $2.73 billion were poured into such funds.The outpour came after last week’s stock market biggest one-day decline since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. The decline was due to the Chinese stock market declining 9%, and constant worry about U.S. subprime loans and the Japanese yen’s sharp appreciation.