Money Management Executive Latest News

While high-net-worth individuals with $1 million or more in investable assets are highly prized, cultivating relationships with these trophy investors presents formidable challenges to marketers.

With the market in the gutter for three years now, scores of private bankers, fund companies and other asset managers are trying to figure out ways to cater to changes in the behavior of their affluent clients. Their pursuit of the wealthy, who, worldwide, have $26.2 trillion at their disposal (see MFMN 7/1/02) and provide one of the only growth areas, makes perfect sense.

Given the choice between two funds run by two money managers, 40-year-old Jennifer and 40-year-old Michael, both with an MBA degree and four years of experience in fund managing, who would most investors entrust their money to? Michael, more likely. Why? Simply because he's a man.

Dublin and Luxembourg are currently the two leading domiciles for funds in Europe, much as Delaware is in the U.S. They offer incredibly favorable tax rates, prestige, experience, geographic location and a skilled, English-speaking labor force. But many believe cheaper labor costs and equally favorable taxation could allow another country to gain prominence in the field.

The mutual fund industry set its passionate sights on the European market in the 1990s, and a rash of acquisitions ensued.

BERMUDA - The expected global growth of mutual funds, particularly in Europe, has not materialized, and growth is being driven by conservative investments, said speakers at the Globalization of Mutual Funds conference here earlier this month.

Firms are finding that corporate 529s, company-based college-savings funds, offer a recruiting tool for the prospective employee who has everything. They're proving a boon for advisers, too.

What better pairing than two individuals who like to stir things up? Outspoken industry pundit Roy Weitz, publisher of FundAlarm.com, recently weighed in on some of the pressures facing the mutual fund industry with Jack Bogle, founder and former chairman of Vanguard and a notoriously outspoken defender of the investor.

When it was adopted by Congress, "catch-up" seemed like a surefire attraction for older workers.

Chief financial officers believe that merger and acquisition activity among life insurers is on its way up, according to a report from Tillinghast-Towers Perrin. Such activity has trended downward as formerly hungry acquirers lost their appetites during the bear market.