Money Management Executive Latest News

A former Vanguard investment fund manager has established a wealth management firm in California to target millionaire investors he sees as relatively neglected, a group that analysts say midsize banks also are pursuing.

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) has suggested banishing the phrase "mutual fund" from our financial vocabulary because of investors wrongly thinking they collectively own a fund company.

Securities and Exchange Commission proposals to prevent mutual fund managers from engaging in market timing – the after-hours trades for self-gain that brought scandal to the industry – may end up hurting the investors SEC is trying to protect, employers and retirement plan experts say.

MFS Investment Management may not be the only fund company to put a moratorium on soft-dollar and shelf-space arrangements with broker/dealers, Money Management Executive reports in this coming Monday’s issue.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have charged Gary Pilgrim, Harold Baxter and Pilgrim-Baxter & Associates with securities fraud and civil charges, respectively. Spitzer’s suit says the executives permitted a hedge fund, a broker/dealer and other clients to make illegal trades in the PBHG mutual fund family.

Asset custody could get a little bit easier and less confusing now that the SEC has changed Rule 206(4)-2 – which oversees asset custody – under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Effective on Nov. 5, the agency withdrew previous no-action letters, which governed custody rules. Now the 8,048 SEC-registered advisers must comply with the new rules by April 1, 2004.

True to projections, Cigna Corp. made it official this week that it will sell its pension and 401(k) business to Prudential Financial for $2.1 billion in cash, making Prudential one of the country's leading retirement services and products providers.

Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal expects the mutual fund scandal to extend well beyond trading practices and that funds must stand up and make fundamental changes to the way they do business, Reuters reports.

Eaton Vance continues to gain market share and predicts 2003 will be its best sales year ever, and the investment company still has the potential to gain assets withdrawn from some of its scandal-ridden competitors, its CEO said Tuesday.

When Eliot Spitzer accused Wall Street analysts of questionable research practices, Charles Schwab Corp. sought to woo investors by setting itself apart from the herd.