Money Management Executive Latest News

Vanguard isn’t taking Fidelity’s cuts on five of its equity index funds lightly. The Valley Forge, Pa.-based fund giant posted a message on its Web site accusing Fidelity misleading investors by disguising temporary price rollbacks on the five funds as permanent cost reductions.

A lawsuit challenging conventional methods for mutual funds to collect marketing fees from shareholders cleared a significant hurdle last week in a New York federal court, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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 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.

American Funds continued its high-paced belting of the competition by placing five of its funds in Financial Research Corp.'s top 10 list for July, a month that saw the mutual fund industry as a whole rake in inflows of $12 billion.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners will be holding an election to reappoint its entire slate of officers, following the resignation of President Ernie Csiszar and Vice President Jim Poolman. Officers usually hold their posts for the full calendar year.

Thanks to the tumultuous conditions in the mutual fund industry, Boston-based State Street, a back-office leader for those fund companies, may look for a buyer, AFX reports.

With more complex financial portfolios creeping into their lives, rich investors are actually hiring advisers to advise their advisers, Dow Jones reports.

Some see Baby Boomers as a marketing opportunity, but not Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Greenspan warns they might crack the economy – if the country does not prepare adequately. He made his remarks at a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Large mutual fund providers like Vanguard and Fidelity Investments will feel the brunt of new proxy disclosure guidelines, experts predict. New regulations requiring mutual fund companies to provide a complete account of proxy votes will definitely have an impact on how mutual funds are viewed, CBS MarketWatch.com reports.

UBS AB cinched a deal Tuesday to buy Charles Schwab & Co's institutional market making, research and trading department for $265 million, Bloomberg reports. By selling its capital markets unit, Schwab is expected to regain its focus on individual investors and financial advisers.