Money Management Executive Latest News

The New York Stock Exchange announced Thursday it will seek fines of up to $150 million against five specialist firms for engaging in improper trading practices.

Cash compensation for wholesalers of investment products and services increased 3% in 2002, according to executive search and consulting firm DGL Consultants.

The Investment Company Institute's board of directors is forming two separate task forces to concentrate on preventing late trading and short-term trading. The board will ask each task force to work closely with the SEC, the NASD and other regulators to devise ways firms can "forcefully and effectively" prevent such abuses.

A high concentration of insurance companies in the state and a desire by Connecticut attorneys specializing in investment management to identify and confront industry issues, has spawned the formation of a new organization, the Investment Company Act of 1940 Attorneys' Association of Connecticut.

John Meier has joined Integrated Fund Services as client services director, in charge of senior relationship support.

Waddell & Reed recently announced the promotion of Nikki Newton to senior vice president and director of defined benefits. He previously was an institutional client representative in the asset management group.

KBD Securities, the broker/dealer for Kinetics Asset Management, advisor to the Kinetics Mutual Funds, has hired Scott Curtis as managing director of equity trading.

Philip L. Kirstein recently came out of a brief retirement to join the investment management practice at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. Kirstein was previously general counsel and senior vice president for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Financial Research Corp. has hired Laura Van Zandt as director of mutual fund distribution research, a new position in which she is responsible for FRC's mutual fund product line. This entails oversight of existing products and the development of new ones to serve the specific needs of various channels.

Mutual fund companies face an array of competitive challenges in marketing and selling their products. Chief among them is providing service and support to intermediaries who want a convenient way to access client information that is scattered across fund companies. In the past five years, the Internet has become crucial for keeping fund companies' products in the forefront - especially to financial advisers and independent broker/dealers who increasingly rely on account aggregation sites.