Money Management Executive Latest News

NEW YORK -- The face of distribution for retirement savings accounts is changing, as Fidelity Investments on Wednesday launched a $70 million product initiative aimed at helping Baby Boomers better manage their finances while making the transition from the workplace to retirement.

Pioneer Investments of Boston is carving out a deeper and broader niche for itself within the micro-plan retirement market, which includes sole proprietors, consultants, very small businesses and professional practices that employ up to five employees.

The SEC has charged Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geek Securities with civil securities fraud for both market timing and late trading in mutual funds. Also named in the suit was a subsidiary, Geek Advisors, Inc., President Kautilya (Tony) Sharma and broker Neil R. Wadhwa. The charges say they allowed at least nine institutional investors, including a number of hedge funds, to market time and late trade more than 100 mutual funds between September 2001 and November 2003. When some mutual funds caught on to their practices and disallowed them to trade in the funds, the defendants tried to hide their and their clients' identities to continue trading, the SEC said. The SEC is seeking relief, disgorgement and monetary penalties from Geek for its actions.

Citigroup subsidiary Smith Barney said it put the kibosh on market-timing activity it found in one of its funds in its Consulting Group Capital Markets Funds back in 2001, according to a recent regulatory filing. The firm said that "governmental review" of the matter is continuing, although Smith Barney did not specify which regulator is probing the group. However, the firm has previously said that both the SEC and the U.S. Attorney are looking at trading practices at the firm.

John Brown, Putnam's senior managing director and head of institutional management, is resigning and will leave the firm at the end of the month. Brown, who reports directly to CEO Ed Haldeman, helped spearhead the firm's fight to stop bleeding assets in the wake of scandal developments at the firm. Putnam said Brown, a seven-year veteran of the firm, is leaving to pursue personal interests.

Waddell & Reed Promotes Sundeen, Hires Connealy

Simplification of the retirement planning process is needed, as the average expected age of retirement continues to jump and investors are increasingly stressed they might have to endure a major lifestyle change after retiring, according to a recent study released by John Hancock Financial Services.

The asset management industry is gearing up for a wave of merger and acquisition activity, as a number of private banks are seeking purchases, according to a recent report from KPMG.

Insurance giants Aetna and Cigna on Friday said that they received subpoenas from the office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in conjunction with his probe of broker compensation.

More than 70% of employers are concerned about the cost of their 401(k) plans, and 60% have reduced or are planning to reduce investment management fees in their plans, according to study by Hewitt Associates.