Money Management Executive Latest News

Pilgrim Baxter & Associates has named Mike Rose as senior vice president and president of PBHG Funds Distributors. In his new position, Rose will concentrate on expanding PBHG's distribution through the load and insurance channels by overseeing marketing, sales and product development.

AllianceBernstein has rolled out six mutual funds that will be modeled after investment strategies that its private client team uses. Called the Wealth Strategies funds, the family of six funds offer growth, tax-managed growth and various balances between growth and fixed income, with two of the offerings investing in tax-exempt fixed income. AllianceBernstein decided to offer these strategies to retail investors who today, after three years of a bear market, are aware more than ever of the importance of sound portfolio construction, said Michael J. Laughlin, executive vice president of Alliance Capital and chairman of AllianceBernstein Investment Research and Management.

Darryl Grayson has joined Gabelli Funds as senior vice president and national sales manager of mutual funds. He joins the firm from Ark Funds, the U.S. mutual fund subsidiary of Allied Irish Banks, where he headed national sales through broker/dealers and the bank's own sales force. He has also worked for Delaware Investments, Bankers Trust and OppenheimerFunds.

Robert J. McCann has rejoined Merrill Lynch as vice chairman of the wealth management group, reporting to Stan O'Neal, chairman and chief executive officer. McCann, who is filling a new position at Merrill, will also serve on the firm's executive and operating committees.

Gartmore Group has hired Richard A. Hein as senior vice president of its separately managed accounts business, in charge of business development, distribution and investment reporting.

What is it with straight-through processing? We've got all kinds of STP magazines, STP conferences and even STP consultants. But didn't the demise of the GSTP and the Global STP Association deliver the final word?

Fidelity. Vanguard. JPMorgan. The names of such leading financial companies evoke security and trust. But bigger financial firms don't always mean better performance, according to a study by T. Rowe Price. The study looked at the collective performance of each fund complex's offerings over one, three, five and 10 years ending March 31.

Are we there yet?

NEW YORK - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's crackdown on alleged illegal trading schemes by four mutual fund companies with a hedge fund could wreak havoc on the mutual fund industry's insistence on its squeaky-clean image. The thought of fund companies cutting deals with arbitrageurs and market timers may be hard for investors to swallow. And if this potentially multi-billion-dollar practice is as widespread as Spitzer believes, it could have serious implications beyond the four firms named: Bank One Corp., Bank of America's Nations Funds, Janus Capital and Strong Capital.

Investment Company Institute President Matthew Fink has announced his plans to retire at the end of 2004. He will have spent nearly 34 years at the institute.