Money Management Executive Latest News

Numeric Investors has shut its four mutual funds, with $455 million in assets, so that it can focus on institutional and wealthy clients, for whom the firm runs $13 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

BlackRock announced that its fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled, reaching $169.4 million, fueled principally by its $9.7 billion acquisition of Merrill Lynch’s asset management business.

While there have been numerous reports of companies moving their exchange business to Europe or Asia due to less stringent regulations there, it has now become apparent that financial services firms are doing the same, The Wall Street Journal reports.

XShares Advisors on Tuesday launched five new exchange-traded funds that focus on healthcare, life science and biotechnology, which are trading on the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters reports.

One of the biggest complaints investors have against mutual funds is that they are priced only once a day, limiting their ability to jump out of a tanking fund before the price craters too seriously, MarketWatch reports.

Despite attracting a massive amount of new cash, the nation’s largest funds continue to deliver strong returns, the Los Angeles Times reports. Companies that run the biggest funds include American Funds, Davis Funds, Dodge & Cox and Fidelity Investments.

The long-awaited fixed-income offerings in exchange-traded funds might be here soon, as ETF providers are starting to cover the bond market, similar to what they’ve done with stocks, according to Dow Jones.

Financial risk associated with pension plans is improving and will likely continue to continue to improve in the coming years, according to Watson Wyatt.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is taking steps to make it easier for international exchange-traded funds to come to market, The Wall Street Journal reports. The move is in step with recent efforts at the Commission to speed up the registration process for other types of ETFs. The SEC has yet, however, to devise the latter rule.

A West Palm Beach, Fla., grand jury has indicted the three men who ran hedge fund KL Group on charges of mail and wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. The jury also indicted KL Group and subsidiaries KL Forida and Triangulum Management.