Money Management Executive Latest News

Van Eck Funds is planning on removing class B shares on its Global Hard Asset Fund, a filing published with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday revealed. The fund will no longer offer the shares beginning Sept. 3. Beginning Oct. 31, all shareholders with class B shares will find those shares coverted to class C. Shareholders will no longer be subject to the contingent deferred sales charge but to a contingent deferred redemption fee of 1% for one year after purchase of any class C share.

Fifty-five percent of employees who enrolled in employee benefits in 2002 chose to do so over the Web, according to a survey by Belelogic, an online provider of employee benefits. And nearly all of these enrollment systems were done on outside, non-corporate Websites.

William Galvin, secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, would like federal regulators to regulate hedge funds and to preclude retail investors from participating in hedge funds or registered hedge funds-of-funds, Reuters reports.

The Democratic National Committee will soon be sending rent checks to Fidelity Investments, Reuters reports. The committee has signed a lease to rent 50,000 square feet of downtown Boston office space owned by the fund giant.

More politics. California governor candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger may have gotten more than he bargained for by tapping Warren Buffet to lead his inner circle of financial advisers, The New York Post reports.

Equity funds took in a net $21 billion in July, Lipper reported Wednesday. It was among the top 10 best months for equity funds in the past five years, Lipper said.

Revenues for the nation’s asset management industry fell 4.8% and operating profits fell 7.9% last year, according to CRA Business Strategies Group. Total assets fell 6.5%, according to the company’s annual report, Competitive Challenges.

Real estate may have been a hot investment last year, but not for real estate investment trusts.

FleetBoston Financial has hired Tracey Esherick to be a managing director for the banking and investing products group in Fleet’s personal financial services business.

Most insurance company CFOs consider distribution to be a key business issue, according to a survey by Tillinghast-Towers Perrin. Out of the 30 respondents, 87% thought distribution of high importance, and nearly a quarter cited it as the top concern.