Money Management Executive Latest News

State Street Research & Management Company of Boston has named five new people to its institutional sales and client service team. Jared Synnestvedt was named vice president of institutional sales. Most recently, Synnestvedt was director of sales for MetLife Investment Partners of New York. Daniel O'Connor joins as assistant vice president of sub-advisory wholesaling. Previously, O'Connor was director of sales at Lavastorm of Waltham, Mass.

New rules issued last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission outlining bank exemptions to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act may have important implications for the fund industry, particularly for no-load fund fees.

Each evening, at 6 p.m., Roy Weitz arrives home from work as a financial advisor for a family foundation, to his quiet, Tarzana, Calif. neighborhood. He reads the L.A. Times and popular investing magazines, eats dinner with his wife and then, at 9 p.m., ascends to a tiny, upstairs office where he quietly wages his war on the mutual fund industry.

A no-action letter issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission last month gives some evidence of how the SEC views affiliated transactions with regard to fund companies, according to Alan Rosenblat, a lawyer with Dechert of Philadelphia. The issue of affiliated transactions is one the Investment Company Institute of Washington D.C. has sought guidance on from the SEC for some time, according to Rosenblat.

The average American worker's confidence in his ability to retire comfortably is declining, and fewer workers are actively saving for retirement this year than last year, according to a recent survey. In fact, roughly four out of every 10 respondents indicated that they are unsure if they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement, according to a survey issued earlier this month by the Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington, D.C.

It is too early to speculate what impact Harvey Pitt, President Bush's designee for chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, will have on the mutual fund industry. Those assessments will only come after the corporate lawyer begins to take action on what will be a full agenda, according to analysts.

The board of trustees of the closed-end Swiss Helvetia Fund announced last week that it would allow investors to vote to approve or reject a series of changes to the fund's by-laws that the board had authorized last year.

Money market mutual funds are gradually becoming the vehicle of choice for commercial bank sweep accounts, according to a report released earlier this month by Treasury Strategies, a bank, broker/dealer and mutual fund consulting firm in Chicago.

Conventional wisdom holds that technology makes business operate faster and faster is invariably better.

Bank of Montreal of Toronto, announced today that it has acquired Guardian Group of Funds Ltd. from Guardian Capital Group Limited, also of Toronto.