Money Management Executive Latest News

Morningstar of Chicago is expanding internationally again, this time to Hong Kong, where it will collaborate with Century CyberWorks of Hong Kong to provide country-specific financial information throughout Asia, said Dan Kobussen, an international business manager with Morningstar.

Almost two-thirds of Americans have not garnered substantial gains from the stock market surge and 10 percent say their stock gains will provide enough for early retirement, according to a recent survey by Keyport Life Insurance Co.

The board of directors of the First Funds has fired Investment Advisers of Minneapolis, Minn. as the co-investment adviser to the First Funds Capital Appreciation Portfolio, one of the nine proprietary mutual funds of the First Tennessee Bank of Memphis, Tenn., an affiliate of the First Tennessee Bank National Association. The disclosure was made in a proxy statement the fund filed with the SEC April 14.

On May 1, Calvert Group of Bethesda, Md. was to introduce its flagship Calvert Social Index which includes predominantly large-cap companies that have passed social screens Calvert employs under its socially-responsible investment mandate. Although Calvert has been one of the pioneers of socially-responsible investments, this is the first social index Calvert has created.

Wanger Asset Management of Chicago, adviser to the Acorn Family of Funds, has launched its first-ever print advertising campaign with an ad that began running in the Wall Street Journal April 17. The ads, which play on the them of the fund family's new tag line, "Money Changes Everything" were developed in conjunction with Arian, Lowe & Travis, the Chicago ad agency Wanger hired last fall.

Charles Schwab & Co. of San Francisco may include co-browsing technology on its website. This relatively new technology, which is becoming commonplace at consumer goods websites but is still new to financial services, would permit Schwab customers to view the site, including their password-protected statements, at the same time as a Schwab representative.

Vestek, a division of financial accounting software developer Primark of San Francisco, has improved its portfolio performance measurement software to now process real-time market data, enabling portfolio managers to determine the actual price at which they purchased securities. Previously, this product, called Portfolio Analyzer, only provided end-of-day market data.

Morningstar of Chicago will open headquarters for its European venture, Morningstar Europe, in London in the next few weeks, said Kevin McDevitt, the business manager for Morningstar's international division.

A telephone survey conducted for Charles Schwab & Co. found that 92 percent of respondents were comfortable with their investment approaches.

Mario Gabelli took a $600,000 pay cut in 1999, but he still had a pretty good year.