Money Management Executive Latest News

ETFs are popular with investors as they offer low fees and they don't have to pay a manager to pick stocks. However, ETFs are increasingly being based on new or custom-made indexes that have the elements of mutual funds, The Wall Street Journal reports. Some new ETFs are based on indexes that operate like traditional mutual funds by actively trying to pick winning stocks.

JPMorgan credit derivatives head Andrew Brindle will hop from the New York bank to a hedge fund across the pond.

Waddell & Reed reached an agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Kansas Securities Commissioner Chris Biggs over market timing in its mutual funds between 1995 and 2003, agreeing to pay $50 million in restitution to investors and to reduce fees by $5 million a year for five years.

Now that the Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines on soft dollars are set, experts predict a resurgence in soft-dollar spending, and service companies see an opportunity to help firms navigate the safe harbor.

As regulators wrangle with how individual companies disclose stock options and executive pay, mutual fund experts are now urging shareholders to take a close look at their advisor contracts to see what they are paying the people who run their funds.

One of the hottest selling areas in the mutual fund industry has been exchange-traded funds-so much so that asset managers anxious to enter the market are now developing proprietary indexes of their own on which to base such funds, launching niche sector or leveraged ETFs and even enhancing indexes, selecting from benchmark indexes companies with the largest dividends, revenue, cash flow or capital appreciation potential.

In less than 10 months, 350 mutual fund companies have signed on to the Fixed Income Clearing Corp.'s (FICC) sponsor membership program, granting access to $3.5 trillion worth of daily government securities trading.

Fidelity Brokerage reported its assets in the second quarter rose 21% to $1.5 trillion. Driving those strong sales was money invested in individual retirement accounts, money market funds and Fidelity's target-date Freedom Funds. In addition, more investors are asking for Fidelity's portfolio advisory services.

Legg Taps Hirschmann As Chief Operating Officer

Investors are not adequately prepared financially for retirement, despite participation in retirement plans increasing, according to a "401(k) Benchmarking" survey by Deloitte Consulting of New York, in which more than 800 plan sponsors were surveyed electronically. Deloitte conducted the survey in conjunction with the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists, both of Brookfield, Wisc.