Money Management Executive Latest News

Citizens Advisers, the investment advisor to Citizens Funds, has hired Robert F. Behan as vice president, director of sales. His chief responsibilities are institutional sales and client service management, as well as consultant relations.

James Mackay has joined Investors Management Group as its new president. He has more than 20 years of experience and a strong background in the financial services industry, including management positions in investment banking, securities brokerage and investment management. As president of Investors Management Group, Mackay will be charged with providing strategic direction for the firm as it continues to grow its fixed-income and equity management business.

Nancy M. Lavin has joined Touchstone Investments as regional vice president for the Northeast. Lavin has nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently as northeast regional vice president at Navellier & Associates, in charge of wholesaling separate accounts and mutual funds. Prior to joining Navellier, Lavin served as a regional vice president, also for the northeast, at Northstar/Pilgrim Funds. She has also worked for National Funds, Kidder Peabody and Merrill Lynch.

SEI Investments, provider of asset management and investment technology solutions, has made Electronic Trading Services capable of straight-through-processing. Eligible equity trades can now be handled entirely automatically, without any manual intervention – from the order, to the marketplace and back to the system of record. The company claims this maximizes efficiency of the portfolio manager. Trades are executed, processed, settled and accounted for without the need for any human intervention.

PFPC, a member of the PNC Financial Services Group, has launched a program that will offer clients the ability to deposit funds intended for brokerage accounts via ATM machines. Customers can deposit a check, and if it is received before 3 p.m. Eastern time, it will be processed the next day. The funds are moved from the point of deposit in a completely paperless transaction.

Due to the improving stock market, merger activity among U.S. investment firms is starting to show more life, Reuters reports.

With the stock market’s recent rally, investors in actively managed funds are getting more bang for their buck, The Wall Street Journal reports.

British fund manager F&C Management said Friday it has been engaged in talks to relinquish control of $68 billion in assets to Mellon Global Securities in order to focus on its core competencies, Reuters reports.

Money manager John Hancock Funds will merge its Pacific Basin fund into its International fund this fall, Reuters reports. The tiny Basin fund, with only $20 million in assets, is not attracting sufficient investor interest to let it stand on its own, Hancock said.

More plan sponsors want to combine their defined contribution and defined benefits plans, a study by Fidelity Investments says.