Money Management Executive Latest News

Charles Schwab Corporation of San Francisco has introduced a mutual fund for people who want to donate to charitable organizations, joining a relatively small number of fund companies offering similar products.

IJL Wachovia of Winston-Salem, N.C. recently established the Wachovia Investment Fund, a portfolio managed by undergraduates at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. IJL Wachovia provides $50,000 for students to invest, along with substantial institutional support.

The Saudi Arabian government's recent decision to allow foreigners to invest in the Saudi stock market through mutual funds probably will not have a lot of U.S. fund companies jumping at the chance to do business there, some industry analysts said.

NEW YORK - Foreign capital markets are poised for a dramatic turnaround that mutual fund companies could take advantage of by offering closed-end funds that invest in those markets, according to Mark Mobius, managing director at Templeton Asset Management Ltd. of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Investors who use investment strategies that center on dollar-cost-averaging or asset allocation may be able to reap greater returns with a variable annuity than they can with mutual funds, according to a study released last month by the National Association for Variable Annuities.

Variable annuities that use outside management firms represent more than one-third of the assets in the variable annuity market, are growing rapidly and are dominating industry sales, according to a study released last month.

When the going gets tough, fund advisers get creative.

NEW YORK - Exchange-traded funds, funds that invest a majority of their portfolios in a variety of stock market indexes, pose a serious challenge to closed-end equity funds, according to some industry analysts.

The fact that retail funds may be sold in variable annuity sub-accounts in the form of funds of funds, has prompted some insurers to seek to include retail funds in other annuities.

CHICAGO - The annuity industry is expecting to receive a formal statement soon from the Internal Revenue Service as to whether partial 1035 exchanges are allowable.