Money Management Executive Latest News

When it comes to marketing to women, education is the favored policy.

During his many trips to Asia in the past decade, Paul McCulley has often found himself plopped at a table with local executives, chatting at length about the way macro economics influence the mutual fund industry.

"You can count on Morningstar for reliable data, research, analysis, and candid editorial commentary," the company's Web site says. The sentence before that, however, Morningstar does not own, operate, or hold any interest in mutual funds," will soon be untrue. Following Morningstar's announcement that it is establishing a registered investment advisor that will buy and sell mutual funds, some industry observers have begun to question how Morningstar's reliability will hold up.

The Kit Cole Strategic Growth Fund, the flagship mutual fund sponsored by Kit Cole Investment Advisory Services, a woman-owned and operated registered investment advisory company, has the urge to merge.

With a lucrative offer unprecedented for the firm, Forward Management has swiped its new director of sales from managed account giant Nicholas-Applegate, it was announced last week. Richard Duff, Nicholas-Applegate's former national sales manager, was selected by the San Francisco-based firm to lead efforts to expand its managed account business.

Prudential Financial has appointed Scott Sleyster, the president of its guaranteed products unit, to head the company's retirement services business.

Janus Funds has named Loren Starr its new CFO, filling a position that has remained vacant since last September 22, when Steve Goodbarn left the firm, according to a company spokeswoman.

GoldK, an online retirement plan provider and mutual fund distributor, has named Gary Brady senior ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) counsel. Brady becomes the company's fourth attorney and the first specializing in ERISA law, according to a spokesman.

Offitbank co-founder and managing director Stephen Shapiro has defected to New York-based hedge fund manager Satellite Asset Management. Offitbank, acquired by Wachovia Corp. in September of 1999, has seen a number of recent high-level departures.

When Gregg Watkins and the other executives at Schwartz Investment Counsel decided to launch a religious niche fund targeting Catholic investors, they wanted the fund's name to set it apart from other funds in the cateogry. So it lit on the Ave Maria Catholic Values Fund because the name was different and would pique the interest of the media and maybe some investors, Watkins says.