Money Management Executive Latest News

The parent company of First American Funds has entered a retirement share class into its mutual fund family. Through its fund subsidiary, U.S. Bancorp Asset Management, First American is reaching out to companies with assets ranging from $1 million to $10 million by offering R shares carrying 12b-1 fees to compensate financial advisers.

NEW YORK -- At a recent news conference held here, Calvert, a socially responsible investment management firm headquartered in Bethesda, Md., unveiled new corporate guidelines it created for the proper ethical and moral treatment of women workers. The news event was co-sponsored by Calvert and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which provides financial and technical support for the enhancement of women's rights.

Playing favorites and making quid pro quo deals have been longstanding practices in the financial services industry, and the 401(k) marketplace is not immune to its ill effects. As such, federal regulators have joined their state counterparts in examining the opaque nature of 401(k) fees and related revenue-sharing arrangements.

Mergers and acquisitions for banks, insurance, and securities and investment companies in the second quarter were not more numerous, but the deals were worth much more, according to SNL Financial.

If, in your life, you have owned the White Oak Growth Stock, Weitz Hickory or Fidelity Aggressive Growth funds, you understand the teeter tottering feelings of elation and dismay. As Morningstar’s director of fund analysis Kunal Kapoor said in a recent Fund Spy column, figuring out whether any of these funds will return to prominence takes a lot more than looking at just past performance.

Ray Cunningham, Invesco’s chief operating officer, Timothy Miller, the portfolio manager of the Invesco Dynamics Fund and the Invesco Mid-Cap Growth Fund, and Thomas Kolbe, a senior account executive at Invesco, have left the company, AIM Investments told Money Management Executive on Friday.

Just days after the Securities and Exchange Commission ratified a plan that would require hedge fund firms to register as investment advisors, Chairman William Donaldson had to defend his decisive vote to skeptical Republican senators amid not-so-new news that Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan is also against the plan.

MFS Investment Management’s 529 plans have eclipsed the $1 billion plateau, the company announced, thanks to what it calls "a wide range of investment choices, gifting and estate tax benefits, and MFS investment management expertise."

Value-oriented mutual funds are once again stockpiling cash in their investment portfolios because ongoing market volatility has provided few buying opportunities, TheStreet.com reports.

Eight out of 10 investors believe they are practicing adequate asset allocation, according to a survey conducted by Ibbotson Associates and the Hartford Financial Services Group. However, the majority confuse one-time asset allocation with ongoing diversification.