Money Management Executive Latest News

Coming on the heels of the SEC's issuance earlier this month of mutual fund trustee independence rules, the occasion of the new president's inauguration has raised a new question about trustee independence.

Mutual Fund Services, a division of the National Securities Clearing Corporation of New York, will release a new service called Interactive Inquiry later this month. The service will provide mutual fund distributors and other financial intermediaries with instantaneous client account information in a more efficient manner than ever before, according to Rosalie Jenkins, a spokesperson for the National Securities Clearing Corporation.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The SEC is planning to issue additional guidance to the fund industry sometime before April on securities valuations, said Douglas Scheidt, chief counsel for the SEC's division of investment management.

SEC Insight, a private research company of Plymouth, Minn., has introduced a new website, secinsight.com, which will provide subscribers access to correspondence the SEC has had with individual public companies regarding accounting and disclosure issues, according to John Gavin, president of SEC Insight.

Morningstar of Chicago has announced that John Rekenthaler, formerly Morningstar's director of research, will head the company's Online Advice business unit.

Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn. has announced it will acquire a 75 percent stake in Walnut Asset Management, a private asset management firm, and its sister company, Rutherford, Brown & Catherwood, a registered broker-dealer, in a cash transaction of an undisclosed amount.

American Skandia of Shelton, Conn. has introduced the American Skandia Asset Management Portfolios, a new group of mutual fund wrap products which will allow financial professionals to charge a fee for providing them, according to the company.

OppenheimerFunds of New York has registered two new value funds with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

New York Life Investment Management of Parsippany, N.J. has announced the launch of the Eclipse Funds, a fund family made up of 18 no-load funds to be distributed through fee-based financial planners and wrap programs.

An abundance of investment information on television, the internet and in newspapers has made it more difficult for financial advisors to retain their clients, according to a survey released by Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn.