Money Management Executive Latest News

Expect a shake-up among mutual fund front-runners this year, as poor performers rebound, and interest rates level off.

Deutsche Bank Securities, the New York-based investment banking and securities unit of German colossus Deutsche Bank, has reportedly bowed to pressure from Fidelity Investments to unbundle research and trading costs. The news comes just two months after the Boston fund shop reached a similar, groundbreaking agreement with Lehman Brothers.

And so begins a new year in the money management industry, fraught with anxiety over whether the nation's capital markets will bounce back from a relatively flat 2005, or if December's dreaded inversion of the bond yield curve and what is surely to be further tightening of short-term interest rates are a harbinger of darker days to come.

The bull is scraping his hooves and preparing to charge into 2006, according to Fisher Investments' market outlook report.

Putnam Investments has found itself an industry example again, only this time, regulators are praising the Boston-based fund firm, once synonymous with scandal and sanctions, as a model corporate citizen.

As mutual funds continue to grow, more funds are charging lower fees to investors, and some industry watchers say it's about time, USA Today reports. In 2004, 2,830 mutual funds cut the fees they charged investors, representing an increase of 355% from 622 that cut fees in 2003, according to Lipper.

U.S. Wealth Management has launched a new broker/dealer firm to better service its growing client base. The new firm, U.S. Wealth Advisors, will provide U.S. Wealth Management's clients with the opportunity to tap into an independent platform offering more control over the business process and access to a comprehensive range of products and services.

Latham & Watkins Lawyer Now SEC General Counsel

Despite their increasing popularity among powerful institutional investors and pension plans, there's very little proof that in coming years the transparency of hedge funds will increase, or that their exorbitant fees will decline.

Even in the financial world the term "survival of the fittest" comes into play. In the U.S, investor education needs to measure up if it is going to be useful to investors, as the fittest investor is the one with the most extensive knowledge.