Money Management Executive Latest News

Mellon Financial Corp. of Pittsburgh has joined a growing list of U.S. companies that manage mutual funds looking to expand into Italy. Mellon's global distribution unit, Mellon Global Investments Ltd., signed a deal late last month with Italy's BNL Investments to distribute the 18 Mellon Global funds. It was the second deal in three days for BNL, which had just signed a deal to sell 13 of Janus International Holding LLC's funds.

As Chicago fund researcher Morningstar continues to make drastic changes to its portfolio analysis methodology this summer, financial planners and analysts say that by providing more specific categories, the revisions will significantly affect the way funds are marketed and sold.

In a recent advertisement, Lincoln Financial Group of Hartford, Conn., told financial planners, "Customized financial solutions. Just another way we make you look like the good guy." In fact, many separately managed account providers have begun to make separate accounts' customized features the cornerstone of their marketing efforts, according to Cerulli Associates of Boston.

Not quite 3-1/2 years after acquiring the $2 billion proprietary open-end fund group of famed money manager Dr. Martin E. Zweig of Zweig Consulting of New York, Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn., the parent company to the seven-fund group, has decided to pull the plug and replace the managers on five of the funds. Two small funds won't be reassigned, but will instead be liquidated. Those ousted include Zweig, who had been serving as president of Phoenix-Zweig Advisors as well as its asset-allocation strategist.

ARLINGTON, Va. - Mutual fund companies have done a good job of banking assets in 401(k) plans, but with so many people retiring or changing jobs, fund companies often lose those assets at those rollover junctures. With some strategic marketing and some personal advice, however, funds can increase their chances of hanging onto money that rolls out of 401(k) plans, reports Boston-based Cerulli Associates in a recent study, "The Retirement Income Market and Asset Retention Strategies."

If the results of the most recent Wealth Management Survey by the Phoenix Cos. of Hartford, Conn., is any indication of investors' satisfaction with their financial advisers, even advisers to the wealthy are doing a poor job of pleasing their clients. Fund companies looking to capture 401(k) rollovers should take note since a recent study by Cerulli Associates of Boston indicates that advice is the key to capturing 401(k) rollover assets.

A public service announcement that Fidelity Investments underwrote and the American Savings Education Council and the Employee Benefit Research Institute developed has won an Emmy. The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' Washington chapter presented the award to Jon Sullivan, a producer with WJLA television, an ABC affiliate.

Three surveys released last week indicate that investors' expectations for the financial markets have recently declined. Investors' outlooks in June fell to their lowest levels since September and their second-lowest levels since 1996, when UBS and The Gallup Organization began tracking their Index of Investor Optimism. Currently at 72, the index had a baseline of 124 when it was established six years ago. It fell to 50 in September 2001, following the terrorist attacks and reached a high of 178 in January 2000 just before the decline in the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500.

Schwab Corporate Services found that self-directed brokerage account investors put 45% of their assets in mutual funds during the first quarter of this year.

CitiStreet has announced that it is expanding its consulting service capabilities to offer information about qualified-plan regulatory developments online.