Money Management Executive Latest News

Ralph Wanger, president and chief investment officer of Wanger Asset Management of Chicago, has reiterated his intention to remain as head of the Acorn Family of Funds even after the sale of Wangers fund group to Liberty Financial Companies of Boston is completed later this year.

Four executives at Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co. of Boston have been promoted to vice president. Ed Nigro and John Danahy have been named vice presidents for research and development. John Farinacci is now vice president for finance and Jed Neureuter is vice president for client services.

In response to the increasing popularity of exchange-traded-funds, two firms are about to introduce two variations of the product.

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House in June that would lower the capital gains taxes investors involuntarily incur as a result of the distributions made within fund portfolios, has received varying reviews from representatives and executives of the mutual fund and annuity industries. The advantages the measure would give the mutual fund industry could drive a wedge between it and the annuities industry.

As the mutual fund industry increases its focus on meeting a variety of investors' needs, load firms are facing the challenge of how to offer the convenience of direct online sales without threatening the relationships they have with intermediaries, according to fund executives and analysts.

Ideal economic conditions and an increased emphasis on retirement savings led to significant structural change in the fund industry in the 1990's and transformed it into the largest financial service industry, according to a recent study issued by the Investment Company Institute of Washington, D.C.

If the Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company (VALIC) of Houston, Texas has its way, the USLife Income Fund, a $53 million closed-end fund it manages, will head in a new direction. VALIC is a unit of American General Annuity Insurance Company, also of Houston.

Although Teachers Insurance & Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund of New York, the country's largest pension fund, has said it will not change its policies, shareholder activists are continuing to campaign to persuade TIAA-CREF to invest in companies that work for social improvement.

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh is adding a vice president and director of offshore operations that will develop and oversee the firm's offshore back office services, according to O'Connor, O'Connor, Lordi, Ltd. of Pittsburgh, Pa., an executive search firm that is conducting the search.

Insurance companies have increasingly been seeking exemptions under Section 26(b) of the Investment Company Act to substitute one annuity sub-account for another without holding a shareholder vote, raising SEC concerns.