Money Management Executive Latest News

Employees at Associated Agencies, an insurance company in Rolling Hills, Ill., have joined the small, but growing, number of workers with a new option for retirement savings: the Roth 401(k).

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. is planning to enhance its Mutual Fund Profile Service, expanding data to be more consistent with fund companies' prospectus rules and making it easier for funds to provide customer information to their distribution partners.

Legg Mason filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to streamline its mutual fund complex by merging U.S. funds and liquidating others, resulting in 119 funds as opposed to the current 166. Most of the former Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers funds will be re-branded Legg Mason Partners Funds.

With the Fed fund rate now at 5.25%. experts believe money market funds will soon reach yields of 5%, and when that happens, investors might move assets from equity to money market funds.

Putnam Lovell Appoints Goldberg Managing Dir.

Once you've achieved relative success, how do you keep the momentum going?

Workers nearing the retirement age are becoming savvier about preparing for retirement, with 64% of employees between the ages of 51 and 60 participating in a retirement plan in 2003, a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington shows. Participation among people in their 50s was the highest out of the other four age brackets, which were divided up every 10 years starting at age 21.

To help determine whether mutual funds or exchange-traded funds are best for a client, Rydex Investments of Rockville, Md., has launched an online trading expense calculator.

As expected, Aviva, Britain's largest insurer, is acquiring AmerUs Group for $2.9 billion. The two companies companies confirmed they were in talks last Friday.

Hedge funds slipped 0.2% in June, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 0.14%, Reuters reports. The dip followed a 1.16% decline in May, when hedge funds did slightly better than the average mutual fund, which fell 1.87%.