Money Management Executive Latest News

Investment advisor Mutuals.com has launched a new no-load product, the Vice Fund, that invests only in alcohol, gambling, tobacco and defense stocks. No other funds employ such a strategy, the company said.

After announced that it may file for bankruptcy, Conseco has been delisted by the New York Stock Exchange. The company’s stock closed on Aug. 8 at $0.34. News of the company, including second quarter financial reports and restructuring plans, sparked a sell-off.

Speaking before a national meeting of plan sponsors of American Express Retirement Services, David Wray, president of the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America, said the nation’s defined contribution systems have held up.

Morgan Stanley today unveiled a new tool that is designed to help investors analyze how their assets are allocated.

Reserve Funds has tripled the level of FDIC insurance on Reserve Insured Deposits, an insured money market account. The company has raised the insurance level from $200,000 to $600,000 in response to customer concerns over investment volatility and safety, said Bruce Bent II, president of Reserve Funds.

Last year, mutual fund investors paid approximately $31.3 billion to the Internal Revenue Service, according to a recent study by Lipper. "Taxes in the Mutual Fund Industry" looks at the tax implication to investors of nearly $2.91 trillion in mutual funds held in taxable accounts.

Prudential Financial today announced that it has selected BISYS to assume recordkeeping responsibility for the 900 401(k) plans that Prudential administers. BISYS will provide an array of services, including daily valuation and recordkeeping services, transaction processing, Internet, call center and educational materials.

The market downturn is taking its toll on Generation X investors, the 52 million Americans born between 1967 and 1981, a survey by MainStay Funds shows. Twenty-two percent of Gen X investors described their investment style as conservative, up from 11% in 2001. Only 20% classified themselves as aggressive investors, down from 36% in 2001. And 38% said the market volatility of the past year has caused them to reallocate their investments.

Only 9% of financial firms make retaining customers the No. 1 goal of their customer relationship marketing (CRM) systems, a survey by GartnerG2, a division of Gartner, showed. But particularly in today’s economy, customer retention should be the foremost goal of any CRM system, Gartner maintains.

Charles Schwab Corp. announced yesterday that it is closing its call center in Austin, Texas as well as laying off the approximately 300 employees in Austin and 75 more from its four other call centers in Denver, Indianapolis, Orlando, Fla., and Phoenix.