Money Management Executive Latest News

Schoolhouse Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Street Corporation of Boston, is increasing the maximum contribution limits of its 529 college savings plans and allowing certain types of savings accounts to roll over into the plans, the company announced last week.

Montgomery Asset Management of San Francisco has named Wilson "Bill" Santos the new managing director of mutual fund distribution, the company has announced.

Daniel Connealy has joined Stilwell Financial of Kansas City, Mo. as chief financial officer. Connealy recently retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers of New York, where he was a partner.

The nearly $1 billion FleetBoston agreed to pay last week to acquire the asset management units of Liberty Financial, appears to be a good deal, but the real value of the acquisition will depend on how the two companies merge, according to industry observers.

As president and chief operating officer of AIM Management Group's newest subsidiary, AIM Private Asset Management Group, Mark McMeans leads a division that represents fundamental change taking place at AIM Management Group of Houston.

SunAmerica of Los Angeles began a new ad campaign last Thursday during game one of the NBA championships on NBC. The ads are designed to "bring to life' the relationship between baby boomers and their retirement plans," according to Sonia Fiorenza, director of corporate communications at SunAmerica.

While the growing popularity of managed accounts represents a challenge for mutual fund companies, it also creates an opportunity for them to gain assets by offering managed accounts themselves, according to some industry analysts.

New regulations adopted and published by the Mexican government early last week will change how mutual funds are distributed in the country and should make the industry more transparent and competitive than it is now, according to industry executives in that country.

This is turning out to be a good year for index funds. Through April 30, both equity and fixed-income index funds have captured close to 75 cents of every one dollar investors have invested in mutual funds, according to Lipper of New York.

The median total compensation for investment professionals working for mutual funds jumped 38 percent, to $270,500 in 2001 from $196,000 in 1999, according to a survey released last week by the Association for Investment Management Research of Charlottesville, Va. and Russell Reynolds Associates of New York.