Money Management Executive Latest News

The roughly 20 percent drop in the number of companies paying out stock dividends has caused some mutual fund complexes to rethink their growth and income strategies, fund executives say.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - The SEC's proposal to require funds to report their after-tax investment performance may prove popular with investors, but it is far from a hit with mutual fund industry lawyers.

Palm Desert, Calif. - The occasional practice of mutual fund directors serving on more than one fund complex poses troubling conflicts that are best avoided, according to two seasoned industry participants.

Citizens Funds of Portsmouth, N.H. hopes to garner more attention for its socially-responsible family of no-load mutual funds. So it has stepped up its multimedia advertising efforts and hired a national sales manager to reach out to financial advisors and retirement plans.

Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn. is raising the front-end sales charge on its equity and balanced mutual funds in seven proprietary fund families as of April 3. The change, which will standardize the maximum sales fees charged on class A shares of Phoenix' various mutual fund groups, was increased to 5.75 percent from the current 4.75 percent charged on most of its mutual funds. That rate applies to all fund purchases of less than $50,000.

Asset-based pricing is a small corner of the insurance world now, but it represents a growing trend in the manner some products are sold to non-retail customers, according to its proponents.

Investment Advisers of Minneapolis, Minn. has settled a lawsuit brought against it by a would-be purchaser of a private security the firm held in its IAI Growth & Income Fund, according to a source close to IAI. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. The security is now in the process of being sold.

Robertson Stephens Investment Management of San Francisco will close its RS Emerging Growth Fund April 28 as a result of a heavy in-flow of assets in the past six months, the company has announced.

Joseph Hays has joined Alleghany Funds of Chicago as vice president for the northeast territory, a new position at the firm. Prior to joining Alleghany, Hays was vice president and regional wholesaler at Van Kampen Asset Management of Boston.

The money management industry had become an outpost for scoundrels in the 1930s.