Money Management Executive Latest News

Rich Dubroff insists financial professionals shouldn't fear him. But a healthy amount of respect probably wouldn't hurt.

The increased prevalence of mutual fund B shares has run headlong into a recent NASD crackdown on inappropriate sales of the share class by brokers. With broker/dealers battening down the hatches and B share flows drying up, many of the firms that have recently launched B shares find themselves in a quandary.

B shares may survive through another distribution phenomenon: Many broker/dealers require that funds have B shares available on their platform, regardless whether they are sold.

In a deal valued at more than $247 million, asset manager AMG will acquire a majority stake in Freiss Associates, the growth-oriented investment advisory firm best known for handling the well-known Brandywine fund family, it was announced today.

The remaining 30% of Friess equity will be controlled by 11 members of that firms' staff, including founder Foster Friess and chief investment officer Bill D'Alonzo. Friess has said he will invest a substantial portion of proceeds from the sale in the Brandywine Funds, making him the largest shareholder in each fund that bares the Brandywine name.

To Regulate Folios Like Funds

But SEC Secretary Jonathan Katz said the two products are not the same and should not be regulated under the same rules. Unlike mutual funds, folio products allow investors to make their own investment decisions independent of an investment advisor or portfolio manager. Furthermore, mutual funds pool investors' money in order to trade securities, folio products do not.

Many retail investors who scoffed at conservative government bond funds 18 months ago are the very ones who are now flooding assets into slow and steady GNMA (Ginnie Mae) funds, making them one of the best selling fund sub-sectors in the industry, according to industry executives and observers.

In 1983, Jeffrey Rattiner, an accountant with a practice in New York City, began offering financial planning services to his clients. He was one of the early ones.

There is more room on the 529 bandwagon than it first appeared. State-sponsored "529" college savings plans have been popping up all over the country recently. Currently, 36 states offer active plans, and almost all of the remaining states have agreements with investment companies or are taking proposals for their plans. Still, fund companies that do not sponsor a 529 plan do not necessarily have to miss out on that market. States are increasingly looking for partners to join existing plans and add their funds, according to industry observers.