Money Management Executive Latest News

Two mangers of HMC International, a defunct hedge fund headquartered in Montvale, N.J., have agreed to pay $4.6 million after charges that they bilked investors to buy cars and trips, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Despite industry support of a proposed rule raising the requisite assets investors need to buy into hedge funds, the Securities and Exchange Commission is now questioning whether more regulation may be needed, according to Bloomberg.

Franklin Templeton has invested $40 million to build a back-office operations company in India, Reuters reports. The company, Franklin Templeton International Services (India), which began operations on Tuesday and has the capacity to employ 1,800, will support the firm’s operations and technology throughout the world.

DST Systems’ fourth-quarter profits rose 60% to $81 million, up from $50.7 million in the comparable quarter of 2005.

Well Real Estate Funds, in partnership with Dow Jones Indexes and Wilshire Associates, has launched the first fund tied to the Dow Jones Wilshire Global Real Estate Securities Index, which debuted in March 2006. The fund is called the Wells Dow Jones Wilshire Global RESI Fund.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. on Wednesday announced it had significantly reduced the fees it charges for networking shareholder account information between mutual funds and broker/dealers and other distributors.

Public entities such as state and local governments have long put pressure in the companies they have invested in through their pension plans—and quite successfully. For one, many have successfully forced the boards of companies to allow for separate meetings of independent directors.

Fewer Americans with household net worth of $5 million or more, excluding their residence, defined as the ultra-high-net-worth, owned hedge funds last year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Oppenheimer Asset Management is the latest company to jump on the bandwagon of offering unified managed accounts to clients, and to launch its UMA offering, the company recently partnered with Placemark Investments.

Poverty among the elderly is likely to increase, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the Associated Press reports.