Money Management Executive Latest News

Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. has started a 529 college savings plan.

Fidelity Investments is purchasing Correspondent Services Corporation (CSC), the clearing unit at UBS PaineWebber, in a move to tap into the clearing business and broaden its base of revenue.

Janus Capital Group announced Tuesday that total assets under management rose to $132.7 billion in March, up slightly from February. The Denver-based fund complex said assets, on average, were about $133.8 billion, a small increase from the previous month. The numbers include its investment management subsidiaries Janus Capital Management, Berger Financial Group and Bay Isle Financial, the company said in a press release.

Principal-protection, bond and hedge funds have been gaining popularity on both sides of the pond.

Playing up their rough-and-tumble investments in distressed companies, hedge funds name themselves with brash, ferocious or outlaw-sounding titles, Reuters reports. Weapons and wild beasts are also points of inspiration.

Northern Trust Global Investments said it has been appointed to advise $300 million of U.S. equity mandates for the fund management arm of France's largest mutual insurer.

Mark Whiston, the new chief executive of mutual fund company Janus Capital, will get a salary of $600,000 this year under a new employment agreement, according to a regulatory filing Monday, Reuters reports.

The Bush Administration is not likely to pass the bold retirement savings proposal that it hoped would redefine the ways investors could save for retirement and other goals. A far more modest proposal is gaining ground in Congress that would simply lift the contribution ceilings within the current system, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Mellon Financial has agreed to buy Arden Group, an investment management firm that focuses on institutions and wealthy individuals, Mellon announced Monday. Terms were not disclosed.

Hedge funds, which have long relished their reputations as aggressive traders, are now turning to safer strategies because, in these volatile market conditions, their investors are demanding it.