Money Management Executive Latest News

The NASD has fined Citigroup Global Markets more than $1.1 million in fines and restitution for failing to prevent more than 100 of its brokers from filing false disability claims with mutual fund companies between June 2001 and June 2002 in order to waive the contingent deferred sales charges on clients' holdings.

China's State Post Bureau will begin selling mutual funds for the first time, reports the China Daily. The bureau plans to allow approximately 2,300 outlets to serve as agents selling the Dacheng 2020 Life Cycle Fund, managed by Dacheng Fund Management.

Franklin Templeton's numbers were up last month. The firm reported preliminary month-end assets under management of $494.4 billion for the month ended July 31, 2006, compared to $490.1 billion in the preceding month and $438.7 billion in the same month a year ago.

UnitedHealthcare's Golden Rule Insurance, a pioneer of health savings accounts, has begun offering its customers mutual fund investment options.

Marguerite C. Bateman, managing director of the Independent Directors Council, will join Sutherland Asbill & Brennan's financial services group on Sept. 11 as a partner. She will focus on mutual fund regulation and compliance, fund governance and best practices.

The Bank of New York's Pershing subsidiary has added William Blair Funds to its no-transaction-fee mutual fund program, FundVest. The program now offers investors access to more than 1,700 funds from 150 companies.

As it reaches its 10th year, Hartford Mutual Funds plans to expand the funds it offers to include equity mutual funds, which are currently handled by outside sub-advisor Wellington Management, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Vincent Lacroix, the former chief executive officer of Norbourg Asset Management, which went bankrupt, qualifies for a legal aid attorney, Montreal Gazette reports.

The NASD has fined four broker/dealers affiliated with ING America Insurance Holdings more than $7 million for accepting directed-brokerage payments from 10 mutual fund companies, in violation of its anti-reciprocal rule. The rule is also designed to ensure that execution of portfolio transactions is guided by the principle of "best execution" and not by other considerations.

IBM won an appeal in the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court's decision it had discriminated against older workers when it converted its pension plan to a 401(k) in 1999, affecting roughly 140,000 employees.