Money Management Executive Latest News

Money matters, but not as much as quality of life and the opportunity to make a difference. This is the surprising consensus of securities industry professionals responding to the 2005 compensation survey by Diversified Management Resources of Boston and the National Investment Company Service Association, of Wellesley Hills, Mass.

The universe of open-end funds that employ strategies typical of hedge funds grew by two last week.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed an enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging that Linuxor Asset Management and Abbas Shah, the firm's principal, defrauded hedge fund participants in the Linuxor Global Macro Fund. Shah both managed the fund and was its trading adviser.

Wealthy investors who can afford to invest in hedge funds, private equity and venture capital have turned to mutual funds instead. According to a recent Spectrem Group study, in the last two years investors worth more that $5 million have doubled their mutual fund exposure by increasing these holdings to 12% of their investable assets.

Large-cap and mid-cap value strategies were the top performers among separately managed accounts during the first quarter of 2005, according to newly released data from the Money Management Institute, Financial Research Corp. and Dover Financial Research.

CHICAGO - Despite the wave of technological advancements and outsourcing expertise in recent years, fair value pricing remains a tough nut to crack, according to mutual fund industry leaders attending the annual Investment Company Institute Tax & Accounting Conference held here last week.

CHICAGO - By all estimations, the GROWTH Act is gaining momentum among lawmakers in Washington, but at least one high-ranking official said its proponents must answer some serious questions before it gets a shot at becoming a law in the months ahead.

The 830,000 individual and institutional shareholders who lost money when WorldCom fell apart three years ago, were handed a small triumph this week when U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ordered investment banks, auditing firms and the firm's former directors to return $6.1 billion.

Maryland-based Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. has agreed to pay a reported $1 million to settle charges brought against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudulently processing mutual fund orders after trading hours.

Morningstar does not recommend Federated International Equity, a $36.86 million foreign large growth fund, because of a recent manager change. Uri Landesman, the fund's manager and the director of research, has left the company for unknown reasons.