Money Management Executive Latest News

Mutual funds in South Korea outperformed those of all their Asian neighbors just one month after finishing dead last, according to data released by research firm Lipper.

RBC Dain Rauscher hopes a new unified managed account platform will help it target mass-affluent customers with services once reserved for the ultra-wealthy. The firm is looking to serve people with $250,000 to $500,000 to invest, thereby competing with larger brokerage companies, said Erik Preus, the firm's director of investment consulting services.

Amvescap, the London-based parent of Invesco Funds and AIM Advisors, said last week it has agreed to a $451 million settlement with several regulators, including $75 million in reduced fees, to resolve charges of improper trading activity by the sister shops.

What a difference a year makes.

When building a separately managed account platform, one of the most crucial and often painstaking steps is conducting a manager search and executing the due diligence process.

Even after an entire year of headlines about the mutual fund scandal, most investors are ignorant of the regulatory probes. Of 744 mutual fund investors that Dalbar recently surveyed on behalf of Reuters, 75% were unable to name a single firm that has been named in the scandal. Eighty-six percent said they did not think the scandal had affected their investments in any way. And asked whether the scandal has prompted them to become more knowledgeable about mutual funds, 66% answered no.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, speaking before the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, recently gave some suggestions on how to keep the Social Security and Medicare systems solvent. The well-known expected shortfalls in the Social Security system will be minor next to the problems the country will encounter trying to support Medicare, Greenspan said. "Medicare faces financial pressure not only from the changing composition of the population but also from continually increased per-recipient demand for medical services," he said. Part of the solution is to boost primary and secondary school education to increase worker productivity, he said. Encouraging older workers to continue to work past the now-accepted retirement age of 65 will also help, he added. "Changes to the age for receiving full retirement benefits or initiatives to slow the growth of Medicare spending could affect retirement decisions, the size of the labor force and saving behavior," he said.

Third Avenue Taps Dugan As New Financial Chief

After months of tossing a string of new rules and regulations at mutual fund advisors, the Securities and Exchange Commission has suddenly found itself playing defense in a unusual lawsuit being driven by staunch members of the mutual fund industry.

The advent of mutual fund proxy voting disclosure has brought executive compensation abuse under greater scrutiny and further emboldened the nation's largest labor union to take aim at the biggest names in the asset management business.