Money Management Executive Latest News

On the heels of a strong 2001, BlackRock, the New York-based money manager is taking several steps to ensure it continues on the growth curve in 2002.

Portfolio Managers' Stock Falls for First Time in Years, Survey Says

In the midst of a recession, and coming off a year of weak flows for equity funds, Craig Callahan has some astounding news: tech funds are coming back into vogue.

It's not a coincidence that there was a jump in the number of closed-end bond fund IPOs last year. Bonds had a very good year and, in general, closed-end funds compete well against open-end bond funds. However, the rise also emphasizes the lack of closed-end equity fund launches, even when the market was soaring a couple of years ago. The drop off in new closed-end equity funds is due to the increased popularity of exchange-traded funds and increased regulatory scrutiny, which may have deterred managers from creating them, according to analysts.

There has been plenty of talk about the mutual fund industry's shift to selling its products through intermediaries instead of selling them directly to retail investors. Observers have been saying for months that investors, timid in a bear market, are turning to intermediaries for advice about how to invest their money.

For direct-sold firms that want to follow the trend to the adviser-sold channels and develop a wholesaling staff, the good news is that the firms that have done it have not struggled to build and train sales staffs. The bad news, however, is that those transitions took more than a year to implement.

INVESCO Funds Group has pushed back the date when it will begin selling its formerly no-load products through financial advisers, according to Laura Parsons, a spokeswoman for INVESCO. In late November 2001, the firm announced it would make the substantial transition beginning March 1, 2002. The new target date is April 1, 2002.

Munder Capital said last week that it intends to merge several funds, including an international version of its well-known NetNet product.

The increasing cost of insurance coverage has forced Vanguard to drop an investment mandate on six of its municipal bond funds requiring them to hold a percentage of insured municipal bond issues. As a result, the firm is changing the funds' names, dropping the word "insured."

There were 543 cases filed in 2001 with the NASD Dispute Resolution arbitration forum that alleged problems with mutual funds, according to recently released statistics. That's an increase of more than 108% from 2000, when 261 such cases were filed.