Money Management Executive Latest News

With one big bat permanently missing from a once formidable lineup and another nursing a number of nagging injuries, the Denver mutual fund business is undoubtedly short on star power. But with the market rebounding, multiple fraud settlements conceivably behind it and several small shops on the rise, the industry is crawling back from the Styxian depths.

With the SEC poised to vote on what could be the biggest transformation to the New York Stock Exchange since its founding in 1792, fund companies still think the new rules are flawed.

Barely has the ink dried on what many in the industry, admittedly, are calling the single most important new fund regulation of 2004 and already PricewaterhouseCoopers is predicting a new tsunami wave of sanctions, within months not years, against these newly appointed chief compliance officers that will define the boundaries of industry practice.

Money managers began accumulating more equities and paring back on bonds after President Bush was reelected in November.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's formal dealings with mutual fund companies reportedly will continue into next year if the Commission follows through on plans to punish investment firms for failing to provide mutual fund board members with vital information.

Fidelity Investments Canada is about to slash mutual fund fees. Starting Jan. 10, Fidelity Canada's investors will pay 15 fewer basis points to purchase front-end load shares of the firm's equity, asset-allocation and balanced funds. The management fee on initial sales charge (ISC) units of Fidelity fixed income and money market funds will also drop by 25 basis points.

Erick Kanter, founder and president of Kanter & Associates and for more than a decade a public relations executive with the Investment Company Institute, died Nov. 23 of a brain aneurysm. His passing away at age 62 was sudden and unexpected, his firm said.

Schacht Executive Director Of Market Integrity Center

Exchange-traded funds have become a hot commodity in the past few years, as investors, soured by their mutual fund experience, have become increasingly allured by their low cost, versatility and tax efficiency. At last tally, the combined assets of the nation's ETFs stood at $190.51 billion as of the end of October, according to the Investment Company Institute. That's up from the nearly $151 billion in assets at the end of December 2003.

At first blush, it may appear to be the odd couple marriage of the 529 college savings plan market.