Money Management Executive Latest News

Communicating electronically with investors in place of paper-based mailings is no longer just a pipe dream. Many fund advisors are hard at work transforming fund investors from being entirely paper dependent to embracing electronic versions of annual reports, updated prospectuses, proxy materials and even transaction confirmations and quarterly account statements.

In the aftermath of the Enron bankruptcy and the demise of so many investors' 401(k)s, some 401(k) plan providers are finding employers newly motivated to minimize blackout periods. These are the periods when a provider is transitioning to a new provider, when plan participants are unable to make any transactions in their accounts.

In the wake of the Enron collapse, 401(k) plan providers and plan sponsors have been in a quandry over whether to provide investment advice.

Equity mutual funds appear to have continued gaining new money in April, according to two mutual fund research firms. Equity funds experienced net inflows of roughly $14.9 billion last month according to Lipper. Meanwhile, Strategic Insight estimated that April's equity fund inflows reached $21 billion. That follows a very strong March, when equity inflows reached $29.28 billion, the highest total since April 2000, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Standard & Poor's is now tracking the policy features and performance of 700 variable annuities and the 9,000 sub-accounts included in them. S&P is adding the information to its Advisor Insight product for financial advisers and brokers. The product previously only included information on mutual funds, stocks and real-time market news.

The U.S. District Court in Tampa, Fla., has convicted Steven Adler, former president of Vector Index Advisors and manager of the ASM Index 30 Fund, of misappropriating $1.9 million from 11 investors [see MFMN 12/03/01].

The average American is not saving enough, devotes little time to managing his or her retirement investments and lacks the knowledge to invest properly, a survey by John Hancock Financial Services indicates. Hancock based its findings on a national survey of 801 defined contribution plan investors.

Keith Karlawish has been promoted to president of BB&T Asset Management, a registered investment advisory firm, the company announced last week. With more than $17 billion in assets under management, BB&T Asset Management, a subsidiary of BB&T Corp., serves as investment advisor to the BB&T Funds, a family of 30 mutual funds and annuities.

Deutsche Asset Management (DeAM) has named Heidi Walker managing director and head of client services for the Americas. Walker, who will be based in New York, will report to Richard Goldman, DeAM's head of Americas institutional business.

Christopher Keating has joined Fidelity Management Trust Co. as executive vice president of sales, client service and consultant relations. A unit of Fidelity Investments, Fidelity Management Trust manages approximately $70 billion for more than 460 institutional clients.