Money Management Executive Latest News

The NASD Mutual Fund Task Force made its recommendations on soft dollars and disclosing portfolio transaction costs to the SEC last Wednesday.

State Street Global Advisors’ newly launched StreetTracks Gold Trust exchange-traded mutual fund attracted $550 million of assets hours after making its debut Thursday morning on The New York Stock Exchange, CBSMarketWatch reports.

TIAA-CREF broadened its portfolio of lifestyle funds this week with several new investments that automatically reallocate their portfolio assets to coincide with retirement plan participants’ projected retirement dates.

A controversial decision in a Maryland court backing some closed-end mutual fund managers’ tactics aimed at thwarting shareholder takeovers has raised doubts about the future of closed-end funds, InvestmentNews reports.

A new study reveals foreign bond funds have outperformed other international funds by not using currency hedging strategies, The Wall Street Journal reports. Ever since the dollar began to weaken in 2002, a number of international funds have tried such a hedging strategy. The revelation comes as a blow to some investors who have pursued international bond funds offering the security of currency hedging provisions.

Contrary to recent reports by investor advocates, mutual fund trading patterns, or turnover rates, have remained largely unchanged for the past 20 years, according to a new study released by the Investment Company Institute.

Mutual fund investors are unwittingly paying more than $17.3 billion of undisclosed mutual fund costs per year, according to a new study released this week by Zero Alpha Group, a national investment advisory group. Trading costs proved to be a major factor in inflating hidden fund expenses that are undetectable to many investors.

Hedge funds-of-funds took in $26.4 billion in the first nine months of the year, nearly half of the net new flows into all types of hedge funds, Bloomberg reports. The business of overseeing hedge fund assets managed by other individuals now accounts for nearly 40% of the $890 billion global hedge fund business, a 33% increase from 2002, according to Hedge Fund Research.

Putnam Investments CEO Ed Haldeman said this week that he hopes the current wave of layoffs at the company will lead to a leaner environment that is more likely to attract new assets, but analysts believe the measures are precursors for an eminent sale, sister publication American Banker reports.

Franklin Templeton Investments settled with California this week for failing to disclose its shelf-space arrangements with brokers. The fund company agreed to pay $18 million, $14 million of which will be refunded to investors, said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. Another $2 million is for a civil penalty and $2 million is to reimburse Lockyer’s office for the investigation.