Money Management Executive Latest News

Franklin Templeton Investment Services, of San Mateo, Calif., recently launched a $270 million Korean fixed income high-yield debt fund that will be wholly funded by the Korean Development Bank in Seoul, and will be closed for three years. If the fund is successful, Franklin Templeton said it will offer similar products to clients in the future.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has given mutual funds advertising tax efficiency another two months to comply with its after-tax disclosure rule. Yesterday’s announcement at an open meeting follows a number of actions intended to help investment companies better cope with the disruption of business resulting from the September 11 terrorist attacks.

It appears Tom Pence has successfully broken free of the golden handcuffs Conseco Capital Management tried to slap on him while he was a top manager there. A lawsuit the Carmel, Ind.-based firm filed against Pence for allegedly breaking conditions of a contract he signed when he left the firm has been settled, Pence confirmed.

Mellon Financial Corp. announced today that it would create a new asset management subsidiary dedicated to actively managed growth equity investing for institutional clients. The new subsidiary, Mellon Growth Advisors, will be the tenth unit within Mellon Institutional Asset Management. Mellon Financial is also the parent company of the Dreyfus family of mutual funds.

SEI Investments has launched SEIBusinessBuilder.com to assist planners with marketing and client relationship issues.

Mutual of Omaha Uses Extranet to Target Brokers:Company Sees Product As Quick Way to Communicate With Remote Sales Force

Pioneer Investment Management has launched a new extranet Web site for Mutual of Omaha, the company announced today. The product distributes news and business-related information to mutual fund brokers.

Vanguard Group is making term life insurance available to its shareholders through the online Vanguard Term Insurance Program. Policies are issued by Peoples Benefit Life Insurance Co., which is an Aegon company based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Investment transfer activity in 401(k) plans was high last week, according to Hewitt Associates, whose Hewitt 401(k) Index tracks transfer activity of employees in large plans. The Index tracks 1.5 million U.S. employees with $71 billion in assets.

On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued several orders and exemption letters to provide additional relief from the aftereffects of the Sept. 11 attacks on the market.