Money Management Executive Latest News

Advertising budgets have been slashed throughout the fund industry, yet several firms are spending what little is left in their ad budgets to promote 529s, focusing their ad dollars in that area.

When State Street Global Advisors announced that it was planning to launch the first exchange-traded funds in Europe in October 2000, there was some skepticism in the industry as to whether or not ETFs had a place outside the U.S. at that point. However, firms wanting to secure ETFs on the limited number of indexes that exist worldwide, began launching the products left and right. Currently, with 102, there are as many ETFs outside the U.S. as inside and firms are planning to launch more later this year.

For years, observers have known that the bank channel suffers a unique brand of problems that makes it difficult for the institutions to become a sizable distribution channel for mutual funds.

Tony James has been appointed chairman of global investment banking and private equity at Credit Suisse First Boston, according to the company.

Richard Gunthel will head DB Real Estate, a new group that is the combination of all of Deutsche Bank's existing real estate investment operations around the world.

John Flagel has joined Capital Resource Advisors as a senior VP in the firm's Atlanta office, the firm announced last week. He will report to Larry Eckman, director of Capital Resource Advisors' Southern Region.

Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America has promoted Gabrielle Matzdorff as its CFO effective March 1, the company said last week.

Orbitex Fund Services has named Stephen Schuyler general counsel for the firm, Kevin Meehan, president of Orbitex said. Schuyler replaces David Bardsley, who left the firm "to pursue other opportunities," said a spokesman for the company.

Quintara Capital Management's new small-cap value fund will compensate its sub-advisors based on how well they perform compared to the Russell 2000 Value Index.

Early estimates of January's equity fund flows turned out to be way off. Stock funds experienced net flows of nearly $20 billion, the Investment Company Institute reported. Lipper's estimate of $3 billion in flows indicated that it was the worst January in terms of equity inflow since 1991 (See MFMN 2/25/02).