Money Management Executive Latest News

Equity funds are almost all but certain to see their first year of outflows since 1988, and inflows into bond funds are on pace to reach record heights, according to Lipper of New York’s November fund flows report.

Holiday shopping is well underway, but older Americans in particular probably are spending less this year.

Although older workers are experiencing large asset losses, they still realize the importance of being involved in a retirement plan - more so, it seems, than their younger counterparts. Fifty percent of employees ages 55 to 64 owned at least one retirement account in 2000, compared to 42% of workers overall, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis of Census data.

Despite recent published rumors that American Skandia was off the block, the company announced it will be sold to Prudential Insurance of Newark, N.J., for total considerations of $1.265 billion, which includes $115 million in liability. Talk of a sale has swirled around the Shelton-based company for years, heightening in the past six months as its financial stability ratings eroded.

Leon Levy, who launched the first Oppenheimer mutual fund in 1959 and founded the company’s now-famous mutual fund unit the following year, will retire this month as chairman.

Investors Can Blame Selves for Scandals, $8 Trill. Loss: AIMR

In a move that has been condemned by the mutual fund industry, The Securities and Exchange Commission last week endorsed a proposal that would force complexes to disclose their portfolio holdings four times each year. Funds currently have to disclose the information twice a year.

The Investment Company Institute has dismissed a Securities and Exchange Commission initiative that would require fund companies to disclose how they vote on proxies, insisting that the proposal would favor political groups and pose a risk to shareholders and fund complexes.

With interest rates at their lowest levels in 41 years and no signs of them rising, fund companies have been scrambling to offer nervous investors alternatives to money market funds.

Miles Z. Gordon will become a member of Putnam's Business Advisory Group, the company's team of experts on business and personal financial issues, where he will serve as a consultant and spokesperson for meetings held by financial advisors and their clients.