Money Management Executive Latest News

San Francisco-based HighMark Funds has launched three asset allocation funds that it said would offer a low-risk, high-reward investment, and make it easier for financial advisers to manage client assets.

The NASD fined Citigroup Global Markets $250,000 for distributing inappropriate hedge fund sales literature, the regulatory agency said on Monday. The penalty marks the agency’s heftiest fine for abusive hedge fund sales practices by broker/dealers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission fears that investment companies may have paid retirement-plan consultants in order to steer business their way, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Famed bond guru Bill Gross, head of the $400 billion PIMCO bond operation, finally got his wish.

Many providers of separately managed accounts are beginning to pitch their wares to 401(k) sponsors, touting their personalization as a way of boosting participation and savings rates. Don Salama, managing director of marketing and sales at NYLIM Retirement Plan Services, a division of New York Life Investment Management, noted that even though many 401(k)s offer online independent investment advice, only about 5% of participants use it. As a result, 401(k)s are underutilized, do-it-yourself vehicles--"a crisis in the making," he said.

Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? While regulators are pushing to clean up the fund industry, some short-term shareholders are continuing to eat away at returns of other investors by driving up costs and benefiting from an inefficient system.

Marsh & McLennan is under the regulatory gun again, and although the new probe is not related to business at its mutual fund unit, Putnam Investments is sure to suffer some fallout, industry experts say.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating FMI Mutual Funds for possible improper trading practices, the company indicated in a regulatory filing. FMI disclosed that the Commission has opened an informal probe into a 2002 security trade by the former employer of an FMI principal. The principal and former employer were not identified, but the manager of the FMI-affiliated Cortina Funds, Cortina Asset Management, is the sub-adviser in question.

NEW YORK - With roughly $600 billion in assets under management, the separately managed account business continues to grow exponentially as members of the adviser community become more and more comfortable with how these nuanced investment vehicles work.

Brokerage firm A.G. Edwards announced that the Justice Department is looking into possible improper trades at the company. While the brokerage firm did not go into specifics or indicate whether it has been subpoenaed, it did admit that it could face some regulatory action for "timing transactions."