Money Management Executive Latest News

Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, the London branch of Merrill Lynch Asset Management of New York, is one of the first mutual fund companies in the U.K. to announce plans to offer stakeholder pensions as part of a new, mandatory defined contribution system that the British government is introducing next year.

TD Waterhouse of New York is now replicating the growth-through-acquisitions strategy it has employed in the U.K., in the rest of Europe through the creation of an online discount brokerage joint venture with Banque Generale de Luxembourg.

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company of Bloomington, Minn. has filed with the SEC to offer ten mutual funds to the public.

The Orbitex Focus 30 Fund is hoping to file a countersuit against an individual who named the fund in an amended lawsuit filed earlier this year. A motion was filed July 13 in the 13th Circuit Court in Hillsborough County, Fla., seeking the court's approval to file the countersuit.

Small and medium-sized firms are using outside vendors to handle shareholders' calls more than ever before, but firms need to monitor vendors to ensure they are getting a high level of customer service and to avoid glitches that can produce disgruntled shareholders and redemptions, said industry executives.

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals of New York ruled July 10 that broker-dealers do not have to disclose trailing payments received from fund firms. The court ruled that such fees are already disclosed in funds' prospectuses and statements of additional information.

Templeton Management Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources of San Mateo, Calif., has agreed to acquire Bissett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. of Calgary for $95 million. Founded by David Bissett in 1982, Bissett provides investment advisory services throughout Canada to a broad base of clients, including pension plans and foundations and high-net-worth and other individual investors through Bissett's 12 mutual funds. The acquisition is expected to close in October.

Two of the first exchange-traded funds based on pan-European indices were launched last week by Barclays Global Investors of San Francisco, said Kerry Steele, a company spokesperson.

Exchange-traded funds attracted $17 billion in the first six months of the year, accumulating $12 million in the second quarter alone, according to Strategic Insight of New York. Assets in exchange-traded funds reached $52.6 billion at the end of June, up from $35.8 billion at the end of 1999, the firm said.

Fidelity Investments of Boston plans to add an open-end floating-rate bank loan fund to its Fidelity Advisor Series II family of funds, according to an SEC filing.