Money Management Executive Latest News

The felony larceny and securities fraud charges against former broker Theodore Sihpol have forced Bank of America’s Nations Funds unit into a precarious spot in which losing investors is a distinct possibility, according to fund experts.

Asset management firm SEI Investments has hired Hyland Software of to power its separately managed account platform.

Even with current higher bond yields and the new tax relief on dividend payouts, U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) are expected to provide excellent yields, a Janus executive told Reuters.

For those Morgan Stanley brokers who thought they were headed for the glory of Tom Cruise in "Days of Thunder," the National Association of Securities Dealers has another idea. NASD has fined Morgan Stanley $2 million for conducting prohibited mutual fund sales contests that offered such outlandish perks as tuition to a racing-car school.

Theodore C. Sihpol III, a former broker with Bank of America who was just fired from his job, has been charged with state criminal and federal civil charges.

Charles Schwab announced its outlook for the third quarter Tuesday, saying it is likely to meet or beat the Street’s projections with a profit of at least 9 cents a share, Reuters reports. Furthermore, Chief Financial Officer Christopher Dobbs told Reuters that customer trading has returned to robust levels.

Conseco has emerged from bankruptcy with a positive outlook, according to two rating agencies. Both A.M. Best and Standard & Poor’s have assigned the company B-level ratings and a positive outlook.

Beacon Research has added fixed annuities from Integrity Life Insurance Co. to its AnnuityNexus database. With approximately 100 participating companies, AnnuityNexus provides product profiles to distributors’ Web sites to provide competitive comparisons, a key benefit for the insurer, according to John R. Lindholm, CEO at Integrity Life.

Besides Bank of America’s director of mutual funds, Robert Gordon, as many as 11 others have been dismissed from the bank in the wake New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s probe into fund trades and Canary Capital Partners, Reuters reports. Broker Mike Tierney and sales supervisor Kathy Tubiolo are among the latest to be canned. The news comes on top of last week’s dismissal of Theodore Sihpol, a broker who worked in BoA’s New York office for high-net-worth clients and who allegedly placed market-timing trades for Canary, and his supervisor, Charles Bryceland. Bryceland was in charge of the bank’s New York brokerage and private banking.

While Morningstar has recommended that investors rethink their holdings in the four fund families named in New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s complaint – Janus, Bank of America’s Nations Funds, Bank One and Strong – at least one mutual fund family has confirmed its faith in the company, Reuters reports.