Money Management Executive Latest News

NASD Regulation continues to monitor sales of variable annuities and fine dealers who violate suitability rules and record-keeping requirements. Two firms were named in the most recent enforcement action and more actions are possible, industry experts say.

There's no question about it. Here in the U.S., fund complexes are increasingly turning to intermediaries such as broker/dealers and financial planners to sell their products. U.S. funds might see a model for such growth in the U.K., where the intermediary channel, made up mostly of independent financial advisers, is known as IFAs.

Kinetics Asset Management of White Plains, N.Y., best known for its flagship Kinetics Internet Fund, which captured more than $1 billion in assets with funds that had eye-popping triple-digit returns in 1998 and 1999, has found its popularity waning. After being passed over in a merger deal with another fund complex for the second time in three years, Kinetics is revaluating its fund offerings, its distribution options and its future.

A scandal that broke about five years ago continues to dog U.K. intermediaries, said Martin Cross, a London-based analyst for the British firm Teather and Greenwood.

Peter Torvik is VP and head of marketing and product development for U.S. Bancorp Asset Management, formerly U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Asset Management, and is responsible for marketing its First American Funds family. Before joining U.S. Bancorp, he was president of DPG Group, an affinity marketing and hedge fund distribution firm. In February, U.S. Bancorp announced a merged with Firstar Corp. When the acquisition was completed in September, the firm merged the First American Funds and the Firstar Funds. Mutual Fund Market News discussed marketing the combined fund family with Torvik, as well as the key aspects of selling funds with a bank as a parent corporation. An edited account of his conversation with Andrew Brent follows.

INVESCO Institutional, the North American institutional division of AMVESCAP, said last week that it has named a new head of sales and marketing and a new head of the firm's third-party distribution.

Financial Research Corporation has hired Darby Hobbs as senior VP of business development, and incorporated the services of Graylyn Associates, of which Hobbs is founder and president. Graylyn was a financial services consulting firm focused on the fund industry.

Pamela Moret, CEO of IDS Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of American Express Financial Corp., is leaving the company in January after nearly 20 years with the Minneapolis-based firm.

Invesmart, the Pittsburgh-based retirement financial services firm, announced that Kent Buckles has been named CEO of the firm effective immediately. He replaces Craig Kirsh, who served as acting CEO for the past year.

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