Money Management Executive Latest News

Spiraling health-care costs are a fact of life for many American businesses and workers. Premiums for employer-sponsored health plans have risen 10% or more annually over the last several years. Faced with an aging workforce, a sluggish economic recovery and pressure on profits, many employers wonder whether they can continue to provide health coverage and still remain competitive in their industries.

No one yet knows exactly how Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 38a-1 affecting mutual fund compliance will be enforced in years to come. The SEC is bound to offer clarification and guidance as time goes on, but funds must take steps now to meet requirements and make compliance a pervasive aspect of their management and board culture.

A.G. Edwards' tussle with regulators is getting more intense. According to a letter submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Douglas Kelly, A.G. Edwards' director of law and compliance, and released by William Galvin, Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth, illegal mutual fund trading activities were not confined to the company's Boston branch but were rampant.

Lifetime annuitization has gotten another boost, this time as bipartisan members of both the Senate and House have reintroduced the Retirement Security for Life Act. The bill, originally proposed last year, originally called for making $20,000 of annual annuity payments tax-free.

In its 10th anniversary, Brinker Capital is also able to celebrate huge sales growth for 2004. Last year, the company's mutual fund assets in its Destinations adviser-sold fund family more than trebled from $247 million at the end of 2003 to $764 million at the end of 2004.

In a speech to the Mutual Fund Directors Forum, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William Donaldson unraveled a broad set of measures that the federal agency plans to undertake to regulate the mutual fund industry more closely.

The Vanguard Group announced that a lawsuit alleging that several mutual fund companies failed to collect or claim settlement money on behalf of investors has been dismissed, according to Reuters.

Amid a federal investigation into gift-giving, Fidelity Investments announced a new team of managers this week to help run its stock trading desk, the Boston Globe reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday said it has censured and fined brokerage Brean Murray for allegedly engaging in late trading of mutual fund shares, Reuters reports.

Leading value fund manager John Schneider has launched a new money management firm, JS Asset Management, based in West Conshohocken, Penn.