Money Management Executive Latest News

More than a decade into the intergenerational transfer of the $10.4 trillion that in 1993 Cornell economists Robert Avery and Michael Rendall forecasted would pass from one generation to the next between 1990 and 2040, financial planners and wealth counselors are detecting a subtle trend. Americans are more willing to talk about their finances, and the rich, in particular, are interested in planners who can help both them and their offspring.

New York State may have changed the way mutual fund companies compete in the 529 college savings plan market.

The downward pressure on 401(k) and other retirement plan balances over the past few years will mean problems for employers - but especially for the millions of workers who are ill-prepared to fund their retirement.

The Independent 529 Plan, a new prepaid college tuition plan managed by TIAA-CREF and run by a consortium of more than 220 private colleges, launched last month. The program, which has been in the works for five years, will market itself primarily as a direct-sold product, but also wants to attract fee-based advisers.

Financial advisers don't always see eye-to-eye with their affluent clients, according to a recent study by Fidelity Investments. The nationwide study, which surveyed 510 affluent investors and 320 advisers, revealed differences in perception over clients' priorities and needs, as well as the most effective means for attracting new clients.

Institutional investment advisors forecast a continued emphasis on diversification - including into mutual funds - and an increasing interest in non-traditional asset classes for the upcoming year.

For years, mutual fund managers have coped with sudden inflows of cash followed by abrupt redemptions, the result of market timers attempting to take advantage of short-term variances between a fund's daily NAV price and the prices of the underlying securities. While some fund companies are intentionally designed to facilitate market timing, most mutual fund firms seek to meet the needs of long-term investors. Volatile flows caused by short-term trading can diminish annual fund returns by more than a percentage point.

Hedge fund values rose 1.52% in September, according to data released Wednesday.

CheckFree Investment Services announced Tuesday that it has added 16 managers to its separately managed account platform in the past past five quarters.

James Connelly, Jr., a former vice chairman for Fred Alger Management , turned himself in to New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer Thursday, Reuters reports. He also pled neither innocent or guilty to a cease-and-desist order from the Securities and Exchange Commission barring him from working at any broker/dealer or investment advisory firm and fining him $400,000. Connelly was expected to plead guilty to ordering employees to destroy documents and e-mails indicating the firm might have allowed late trading, a source told Reuters. The SEC charged him with permitting select investors to market time the Alger funds in exchange for promising to make large deposits in other of the fund complex’s funds.