Money Management Executive Latest News

Seems like it’s 1974 all over again, Reuters columnist Client Willis writes. Share prices are down 40%-plus. Scandal after scandal, the headlines scream. Oil prices are fanning high amid a Mid East crisis.

If mutual funds are where some of the so-called smart money is, then the smart money is not betting on tech.

TIAA-CREF will be raising mortality and expense (M&E) fees on its Personal Annuity Select, a variable annuity, on July 1. The M&E, at 10 basis points one of the lowest around, will be going up to 40 basis points because the company’s variable sub-accounts have dropped in assets.

Of the 100 hedge funds that have failed over the past 20 years, 50 of them shuttered due to misrepresentation of fund investments, misappropriation of investor funds, unauthorized trading or inadequate resources, according to Capco. More careful due diligence could have prevented such mistakes, according to the financial services technology firm.

Merrill Lynch will start a donor-advised fund in April that will link the New York brokerage firm with a national network of community foundations to boost its charitable-giving assets.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz - The American Society of Pension Actuaries (ASPA) Executive Director Brian H. Graff warned the plan sponsor and retirement-services industries to jointly get their acts together and provide investors with better investment tools, or they will have Congress on their collective backs.

The clock is ticking for the Investment Company Institute (ICI), the fund industry's largest and most influential trade group, as 11th-hour lobbying efforts to stave off proxy-voting disclosure may not cut the mustard.

MIAMI - Automated e-mail response and routing. Voice and other biometric signature prints. E-statements. Virtual signatures. Co-browsers and personal Web pages. Wireless access, voice recognition and artificial intelligence. Videoconferences with big-name portfolio managers for wealthy investors, and chat rooms and instant messages for the masses.

The B in B shares stands for "Bogus."

It takes money to make money, the adage goes, and this is no less true for the mutual fund industry. The sale of B shares requires up-front capital to compensate brokers, and at the same time generates an asset-based income stream that varies according to the fortunes of the market. To ease both of these pressures, fund companies have securitized 12b-1 fees, basically selling off that future income for a set period of time, in exchange for an up-front lump sum.