Money Management Executive Latest News

The alternative assets group of RBC Capital Markets has launched a diversified hedge fund index comprised of 250 funds, which is about six times larger than other investable hedge fund indexes, according to the company. The 250 funds represent about 20% of all hedge fund assets under management out of a total universe of 4,700 funds, including many funds that are now closed to new investors or have lock-up requirements. This makes it one of the broadest indexes representing the industry, said Winson Ho, co-head of the division and co-creator of the index.

One year into a pilot program promoting easy-to-search electronic filings through XBRL, or extensible business reporting language, the Securities and Exchange Commission will host a series of roundtables at its headquarters to review the successes of the initiative and plan for its expansion, with the first session scheduled for June 12. Investors, issuers, analysts, auditors, regulators and technology professionals are invited to participate and offer feedback.

Dreyfus Selects Baum for New Distribution Position

College professors could probably teach American workers a thing or two about retirement.

Less than four months after investment manager GAM of New York and London was sold by parent UBS AG to bank giant Julius Baer of Zurich, Switzerland, GAM's five U.S.-based open-end mutual funds are going up for a full-scale review.

Socially responsible investing is gaining greater acceptance among mutual fund portfolio managers, as more managers worldwide are finding environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues important and relevant to mainstream investment analysis. In fact, within the next five years, they expect these issues to become even more critical factors affecting performance.

Nuveen Investments, which manages $136 billion in assets, has revamped ETFConnect.com, which provides information on closed-end funds traded on exchanges, as well as exchange-traded funds.

After 38 years with T. Rowe Price Group, Chairman and President George A. Roche announced that he plans to retire in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Because of a systems glitch, incorrect ratings were assigned to about 300 of the 3,000 stocks offered through Charles Schwab Corp, The Wall Street Journal reports.

American Funds will appear before a panel Monday to fight NASD charges that the mutual fund firm violated regulations by channeling trades to brokerage companies that boosted American Funds, according to the Los Angeles Times.