Money Management Executive Latest News

Investing in a variable annuity in a tax-deferred retirement plan has long been the target of industry critics, but this month a New York law firm did more than just harp on the practice. It filed a lawsuit against it.

Kevin A. Rowell is the newly knighted president of Safeco Mutual Funds, a job he assumed this past September. With nearly $3.3 billion in assets under management across its 19-fund lineup, the SAFECO funds are managed by Safeco Asset Management Co., a division of Safeco Life & Investments, which is itself a unit of Safeco Corp., the Redmond, Wash.-based insurance company.

To err is human, to forgive divine. But when errors occur in mutual fund net asset values, they can be problematic and a source of frustration.

GoldK has promoted two execs, John Bosley, VP, to the national sales manager position and William Bowditch, controller, as VP of finance.

As a result of the realignment of parent company Amvescap last year, Invesco Funds Group has announced the appointment of Ray Cunningham as president and CEO.

Dalbar has awarded a dozen fund complexes its Mutual Fund Service Award. Each year, Dalbar, which rates and researches customer service at financial companies, selects fund complexes that offer "the highest tier of service to shareholders." The findings are based on a program in which Dalbar opens mutual fund accounts at 49 companies. It then monitors the quality of those firms' services, including the competence of telephone representatives.

Most broker/dealers recommend that clients buy or hold onto stocks of companies until the day those companies file for bankruptcy, according to a study by Weiss Ratings. Despite widespread concerns about dubious ratings following scandals at Merrill Lynch and other brokerages, in the fourth quarter of 2002, Weiss found that only 10 out of 30 broker/dealers switched their recommendations to "sell" before companies went bankrupt.

The U.S. Treasury Department has proposed rules that would require mutual funds to report "suspicious activities," such as the use of a fund by a terrorist group, to the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN.

As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced last today that it will require mutual funds and their investment advisors to disclose their proxy votes and have fund executives certify the accuracy of their financial statements.

Bond funds saved the day in 2002, netting the mutual fund industry $72 billion in inflows into all classes overall, according to year-end data that Lipper released today.