Money Management Executive Latest News

More than 40% of U.S. households, or 40 million households, owned at least one IRA in 2004, off just slightly from the 41.4% of 2003, an annual ownership study from the Investment Company Institute reveals. That number, however, is somewhat higher versus the 39.5% of 2002 and the 39.7% of 2000 and 2001.

Assets in 529 college savings plans swelled to an estimated $52.3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2004, up 15.8% from an estimated $45.1 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2004. The data was reported by Financial Research Corp. (FRC) and released Monday by the College Savings Foundation (CSF).

Putnam Investments announced the retirement of Steve Oristaglio, head of investments, and said it has promoted Kevin Cronin to that postition.

China's mutual fund industry may not be welcoming of foreign fund companies, according to a column in Financial Times by Mark Konyn, chief executive of Allianz Dresdner Asset Management in Hong Kong.

In an arbitration settlement, Morgan Stanley paid $19,000 to an investor even after he made threatening remarks to one of the firm's brokers, according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Owing to an indemnity letter it provided to its U.S. broker, A.G. Edwards, London-based hedge fund manager Headstart Asset Management reportedly may have to pay up for losses caused to U.S. mutual fund shareholders resulting from nearly $2 billion of market-timing trades.

Peter Scannell, the whistleblower who helped take down Putnam Investments, has resurfaced, having secured a job with the securities regulator who first charged the mutual fund company with fraud. Scannell, a former employee at Putnam's call center in Quincy, Mass., initially grabbed headlines when he told William Galvin, Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth, that Putnam turned a blind eye as more than a dozen union members with retirement accounts at Putnam market timed its funds.

In a Jan. 31 story about internal wholesalers, 13-year-old Investors Capital Corp. was incorrectly identified. Also, portfolio manager Tom Cameron helped launch the Eastern Point Advisors Rising Dividend Growth Fund in 2004. The firm's first fund, the Eastern Point Advisors Capital Appreciation Fund, launched in 1999.

Accessor Capital Management of Seattle is now the second firm the Securities and Exchange Commission has targeted for miscalculating its mutual fund performance-based management fees. In addition, several other investment managers that have sub-advised the Accessor Capital funds may also be implicated if the SEC follows through on its threats of regulatory action.

Federal regulators on Wednesday filed civil fraud charges against two former FleetBoston Financial executives, alleging the duo allowed preferred customers to engage in abusive mutual-fund trading practices at the expense of its long-term fund shareholders.