Money Management Executive Latest News

Following a merger agreement that has led to the combined entity of the New York Stock Exchange and the Archipelago Exchange (see MME 04/08/05) as NYSE Group, the NYSE is deciding which stock specialist will be handling its own shares, Reuters reports.

Shareholder services company Georgeson Shareholder has found, in its 2005 annual corporate governance review, that the total number of shareholder proposals has decreased along with the number of contested solicitations.

Principal Financial Group has become the principal player in the mid-size retirement market, according to a study by Spectrem Group.

Citigroup Inc. has won a $900 million case having to with the company allegedly issuing flawed research that caused investor Donald Sturm to lose money, with an NASD arbitration panel ruling in Citigroup's favor, Reuters reports.

Faced with big tax bills for the first time since 2000, investors in 2005 flocked to tax-efficient funds, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Fidelity Investments' bold decision to force Lehman Brothers to charge it separately for trades and for research is putting pressure on other brokerages to do the same, The Wall Street Journal reports. But some in the industry point to a potential downside to eliminating soft dollars to pay for research.

The decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow investment firms to provide annual reports and proxy-voting materials online might encourage closed-end-fund activists to wage more proxy-voting wars to open funds and to contest board elections or new advisory contracts, The Wall Street Journal reports. This is a possible scenario, since proxy fights by closed-end funds are becoming more commonplace.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's deputy general counsel and acting director of the division of investment management Meyer Eisenberg, has decided to retire in January because he has accepted a position as visiting professor of law at Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon.

Charles Schwab's decision to return to the discount brokerage giant that he founded and serve as the CEO of the firm once again has put the firm on stronger footing, according to MarketWatch.

A class-action lawsuit has been brought against IG Investment Management Ltd., CI Mutual Funds Inc., Franklin Templeton Investments Corp., and AGF Funds Inc., by a group of Canadians who invested in their mutual funds between 1998 and 2003. The fund companies are accused of breaching their fiduciary duties to investors, and of being negligent and allowing market timing. The claim has been filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.