Money Management Executive Latest News

While it is still too early to gauge the success of the new site, Farragher did say that clients who have tried it have gotten hooked on Web trading and enjoy other features, such as downloads of the previous day's transactions. Ninety-five percent return to the site to trade again, he says.

Once touted as the middle class citizen's ticket to market diversification, it seems the traditional, open-end mutual fund has decided to betray its pedestrian roots for the higher side of the road.

Reminiscent of the free toasters banks were fond of handing out to new depositors in the 1960s, at least two mutual fund companies and one insurance company have recently turned to special promotions to lure assets.

Exchange-traded funds are no longer the popular products that everyone is talking about. Now, they're just popular products.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is apparently close to starting a review of fund rules. However many industry observers are unsure which rules might be affected, and how fund marketing might be affected in turn.

This year Nuveen Investments launched 18 new closed-end, fixed-income funds. Last year it launched zero.

With U.S. warplanes swarming over Afghanistan and Special Forces troops readying to take to its ground, financial planners have begun to get calls from investors inquiring about defense-related investing.

More than a month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, firms whose offices were destroyed are still dealing with the relocation process. This month both OppenheimerFunds and Fred Alger Management, investment managers that were actually located in the towers, announced that they have signed leases elsewhere in Manhattan and are planning to move displaced employees in to the new offices soon.

MFMarketnews.com is keeping abreast of the industry's latest developments with postings twice a day. If you didn't log on last week here are some Web exclusives you missed:

Robert Higgins, president of FleetBoston's consumer banking and investment services, has announced plans to retire from the firm at the end of 2001. Higgins also serves as a director of FleetBoston Financial.