Money Management Executive Latest News

Investors pulled money out of bond funds and invested a net $3.2 billion into U.S. stock mutual funds in the week ending Wednesday, according to AMG Data Services, Reuters reports. With the rise of S&P 500 index this year, it would seem investors are becoming more apt to put their money in stock funds in search of more substantial gains. Stock funds have had inflows for the past four weeks, according to AMG.

T. Rowe Price said Friday its second-quarter earnings rose as a post-war stock market rally and lower interest rates helped boost assets under management.

MassMutual Financial has added push e-mails to its defined contribution and defined benefit services.

ING Group has bought Entrium, Germany’s second-largest direct bank.

TD Asset Management, the investment arm of TD Bank Financial Group in Toronto, announced Wednesday that a Canadian unit of UBS Warburg will advise its international equity fund.

After postponing a markup session for the mutual fund transparency bill earlier this month, the House Financial Services Committee has approved H.R. 2420, but with several key changes that take a lot of the punch out of the original proposal.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman William H. Donaldson commended members of the joint NASD/industry task force on breakpoints Thursday. The task force issued a report Monday recommending reforms across the industry regarding mutual fund purchases (see MME 7/22/03). The recommendations include improving breakpoint disclosure and creating a central database of mutual fund purchases.

Trust in the financial markets has improved, yet many Americans are still not investing. That’s according to a recent survey of 5,000 households by NFO WorldGroup for the Conference Board.

State Street Corp. has reported that its global philanthropy program made 225 grants totaling more than $3.6 million in the first half of 2003. The grants include $355,000 of future commitments, it said.

Despite well-publicized warnings about how to save for retirement, two studies indicate that workers and employers are shockingly overconfident and ill informed about basic matters of retirement saving.