Money Management Executive Latest News

Legg Mason of Baltimore, Md. has agreed to acquire Perigee, the ninth largest Canadian-based money management firm, based in Toronto. The acquisition will be structured as a stock swap. The firm's principals will remain. Perigee will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Legg Mason.

State Street Global Advisors of Boston has slashed the management fee of its Standard & Poor's Depository Receipts Fund (SPDR) from 18 basis points to 12 basis points.

The SEC has fined and censured the adviser to an Internet fund for failing to file the proper Y2K forms.

Conseco Capital Management, the money management arm of Conseco, the insurance, mutual fund and financial services company of Carmel, Ind., will buy the adviser to the StockCar Stocks Index Fund, according to a proxy statement the fund filed with the SEC March 1. Conseco will pay up to $5 million over four years to buy the fund's adviser, StockCar Stocks Advisors, LLC of Mooresville, N.C., according to the proxy statement. The exact purchase price will be determined by future fund sales, according to the proxy statement.

Shareholders of The Korea Fund are being asked in a proxy statement to approve a joint venture between Scudder Kemper Investments of Boston and Daewoo Capital Management of Seoul, South Korea that would create Scudder Investments Korea, a new investment adviser to the fund, Scudder has announced.

Franklin Resources of San Mateo, Calif. has won shareholders' approval to broaden the scope of its $214 million Franklin Gold Fund. On March 13, shareholders voted to allow the fund to invest in non-gold companies and change its name to reflect the expanded focus. Up until now, the fund invested only in companies involved with the gold trade.

The Managers International Equity Fund has hired a third manager to sub-advise a portion of the $675 million fund.

Mutual fund redemption rates continued to rise faster than gross sales last year as investors spent some of their investment gains on luxury purchases and reinvested other gains in non-mutual fund investments, according to a new report.

Jeffrey Plunkett has been promoted to executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of Nvest of Boston. Plunkett, who previously was senior vice president and associate general counsel, joined Nvest in 1996.

KPMG LLP of New York last week saved itself and the accounting industry from the potential of a court case that could have expanded the liability of accountants who audit mutual funds.