Money Management Executive Latest News

Robeco Groep, a Netherlands-based independent asset management company, has agreed to purchase Harbor Capital Advisors of Toledo, Ohio from Owens-Illinois, a manufacturer of glass and plastic packaging, for up to $490 million in cash, Robeco Group announced last week. Harbor Capitol Advisors oversees the Harbor Fund family of mutual funds, as well as Owens-Illinois'

State Farm Insurance of Bloomington, Ill. has announced that it is offering mutual funds nationally. The company started offering mutual funds in January, in a pilot program in Missouri, North Carolina, Kansas and Virginia.

The closed-end Mexico Equity and Income Fund has, for the fourth time in less than a year, failed to garner enough votes to liquidate the fund. At the most recent shareholder meeting, March 16, three of the fund's directors, who promised to resign if the required two-thirds of shareholders did not approve the fund's liquidation, did in fact resign, according to Advantage Advisers of New York, the fund's U.S. adviser.

The Securities and Exchange Commission rule regarding fund investments' adherence to a fund's name, rule 35d-1, will take effect March 31. The rule imposes new requirements on the use of potentially misleading or deceptive fund names. Under the rule, investment companies will be required to have 80 percent of the assets of a fund correspond with the name of the fund. The standard had been 65 percent.

Young adults under 35 who have retirement accounts with Fidelity Investments of Boston are well prepared to meet their retirement needs. On average, if they sustain their current savings rates, they are likely to cover 124 percent of their retirement needs. However, those 35 and over are likely to fall short. If they sustain their current savings rates, those in the 35 to 50 age group are likely to be able to cover only 60 percent of their retirements needs while those over 50 are likely to have enough to cover only 27 percent of their needs.

Rockies Fund, a business development company (a type of closed-end fund), and its president, Stephen Calandrella, were recently found to have falsely valued the fund's holdings and to have manipulated stock prices. In a decision handed down March 9, Judge Brenda Murray ruled that Calandrella had manipulated the price of the stock of a small costume jewelry store chain, Premier Concepts. Judge Murray also found Rockies Fund had overvalued the fund when it did not discount restricted shares of Premier Concepts stock the fund owned.

Jim Greenawalt has been named senior vice president and director of marketing at Alleghany Funds of Chicago. Previously, Greenawalt was managing director and president of distribution for Kemper Funds of Scudder Kemper Investments of Boston.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The Securities and Exchange Commission may be searching for a new chairman, but that will not prevent it from pursuing new initiatives, including a new rule proposal it expects to issue by June 30, according to Paul Roye, director of the division of investment management for the SEC.

Despite the drastic change of direction in the markets, fund companies do not appear to have appreciably shifted the nature of their advertising campaigns and several companies recently said they have no plans to do so.

When a roomful of mutual fund company executives at a recent industry conference was asked for a show of hands of those who had looked into running managed accounts as a means of growth for their respective companies, no one moved.