Money Management Executive Latest News

Poor market performance coupled with increased Securities and Exchange Commission vigilance over performance advertising has prompted some fund companies to advertise their funds' relative performance instead of absolute returns, according to fund advertising and marketing executives.

The fund industry is concerned that evolving interpretations of the act which authorizes the use of electronic signatures in commerce will inhibit the mutual fund industry's use of the Internet. The Investment Company Institute outlined its concerns in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission last month.

Although the bear market has prompted many funds to cut costs, wealth management products and services have been largely unaffected by fund companies' austerity measures, according to industry executive and analysts.

With most state contracts for 529 college savings programs already awarded to asset managers, states and the managers that run the programs are now vying to offer design and distribution advantages over other state's plans, according to industry observers.

Convincing companies to become sponsors of new 401(k) plans can be an extremely difficult task. That is a concept that Persumma Financial of Newton, Mass., part of the MassMutual Financial Group, should understand well.

A lawsuit filed April 2 in a Delaware state court could decide if a closed-end fund's board of directors acted properly in setting strict guidelines as to who qualifies for nomination as a fund board director, or if the guidelines were established to thwart shareholder activism and impede investors' rights.

Dan Cwenar is the chief operating officer for Access Data Corporation of Pittsburgh, a financial services industry software and consulting company whose clients include Invesco of Denver and Charles Schwab of San Francisco. Cwenar will moderate a panel of industry executives who will discuss XML and its use in the financial services industy this week at the Technology Forum sponsored by the National Investment Company Service Association of Boston. Cwenar recently discussed XML with Mutual Fund Market News reporter, Andrew Brent. An edited account of their conversation follows.

Mutual fund companies spent 22 percent more on advertising last year than in 1999 as they touted their products' improved performance in a bull market, according to a recent industry study.

After 25 years as a leader in socially-responsible investments, Calvert Group of Bethesda, Md. is making revisions to its corporate image.

More equity funds reported inflows for the week ending April 18 than in any week since the end of January, according to AMG Data Services of Arcata, Calif.