Money Management Executive Latest News

The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining whether Allegiant Asset Management accepted kickback payments from its fund administrator to pay for marketing, the investment management firm's parent company, National City, revealed in an SEC filing.

Despite the midterm election shakeup, Washington-watchers expect very little new legislation affecting the fund industry to shake out of Congress before 2008.

NEW YORK-It used to be that investors saw so-called emerging markets as deep pools of resources that helped fuel the powerhouse economies of Western Europe and the United States. Investing in international stocks seemed like a smart strategy, but only safe enough for a small portion of one's portfolio.

NEW YORK-Just as exchange-traded funds have taken the fund industry by storm over the past few years, industry executives expect unified managed accounts to be the next wildly popular investment choice due to their simplicity, automatic rebalancing and diversification.

Before he leaves his position as New York attorney general to become governor of the state, Eliot Spitzer may unleash one, perhaps two, more whopper enforcement actions against major Wall Street firms, David Brown, the A.G.'s investment protection chief, indicated at a Reuters Investment Banking Summit in New York last week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission expects to charge more hedge funds with illegal trading, Linda Thomsen, director of enforcement at the SEC, indicated last week.

Phoenix Names Aylward President of Subsidiary

Complexes offering target-date funds will soon be joined by a hefty new entrant: American Funds, the 800-pound gorilla, which, year to date through August, has attracted more than 37% of the $123 billion in assets flowing to the top 50 fund complexes, according to Financial Research Corp. of Boston.

NEW YORK-As the unified managed account industry continues to grow, money managers must train financial advisers adequately to sell their products. As companies enter the UMA business, their most important task will be to continually educate, train and support advisers, speakers said during Financial Research Associates' Unified Managed Accounts conference here last week.

A look at the proxy voting patterns of mutual fund companies in 2006 by The Corporate Library shows that they continue to vote overwhelmingly in favor of management proposals and typically shun shareholders’ ideas, The Wall Street Journal reports. Most tellingly, a majority of funds, 65%, have opposed shareholder proposals this year to limit executive pay.