Money Management Executive Latest News

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has pledged $3 million in aid to the victims of the tsunami disaster in South Asia, $1 million in an outward donation and $2 million to match any contributions by its 2.8 million investors through April 15.

Fidelity Investments has announced five new portfolio managers on its Select funds group.

The Internal Revenue Service has just issued guidance on a rule that has been on the books since 2001 to prevent employers from liquidating 401(k) rollover accounts with values between $1,000 and $5,000, The Washington Post reports.

Canadian mutual fund companies cut back drastically on their advertising expenditures in 2004, shelling out a mere $11 million (C$13.5 million), down 80% from $55 million (C$67.3 million) in 2000, the Canadian Press reports.

With foreign stock mutual funds delivering an average 12.7% gain over the past three years versus 4.9% for domestic stock funds, more investors are investing in international funds, which is depressing the U.S. dollar even further, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested information from Warren Buffet's General Re about the sale of products to generate steadier earnings, making it the seventh insurer the SEC has investigated since New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched his investigation into bid-rigging and price fixing.

The trading scandal has put the Canadian fund industry through the ringer in the past year. But Investment Executive columnist James Langton believes that despite the precedent-setting cases and record $200 million in fines and disgorgement (US$166 million), investors have reason to remain dissatisfied.

Index and exchange-traded funds held special lure for investors during the final years of the bull market for their broad exposure to the stock market. Then, when the bear market hit, they became popular for their low costs. This year, added benefits of ETFs seems to be their tax efficiency and protection from trading abuses, CBSMarketWatch reports.

A rally in the fourth quarter boosted most equity funds, which rose an average of 13.6% for the year, well above the S&P 500's 9% gain, the Associated Press reports.

AIM Investments announced Thursday it has renamed the AIM International Emerging Growth Fund the AIM International Small Company Fund, to better reflect the fund's investment objective and holdings in line with the SEC's fund names rule that dictates a fund's name is represented by at least 80% of its holdings.