Money Management Executive Latest News

John Hancock Funds will ask shareholders of its International and International Equity funds to permit the funds to enter into lending agreements through which the funds can borrow from or lend money to other Hancock funds, according to preliminary proxy statements Hancock filed with the SEC last week.

Putnam Investments of Boston has lost Standard & Poor's Select Fund status for two Putnam funds - not because of poor investment performance or fund manager changes - but because Putnam refuses to provide the monthly and quarterly data S&P of New York says it needs to rate the funds, S&P said in a statement.

Kinetics Asset Management of New York, the investment adviser of the Internet Fund, has filed with the SEC to offer a no-load fund that will invest in medical companies, especially those that are working on a cure for cancer.

The Irish fund industry grew by 65 percent over the past year, according to a London-based research and consulting company.

Thomas P. Meehan, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., is planning to offer his own mutual fund, according to a registration statement filed with the SEC Sept. 7. The Meehan Focus Fund, part of the Meehan Mutual Funds, plans to invest in no more than 25 stocks at one time, according to the registration statement. There are no other funds in the family. The no-load fund will follow a value-oriented investment strategy.

The Principal Financial Group of Des Moines, Iowa is providing its 401(k) customers daily, personal rates of return at its web site. The breakdown shows 401(k) investors the rates of return for each holding in their 401(k) portfolios and for the portfolios as a whole.

The Dreyfus Corp. of New York is turning to financial intermediaries to improve sales of its socially-conscious fund offering.

Michael Kim has joined Fidelity Investments Institutional Brokerage of Boston as regional vice president for advisor services. In this position, Kim will be responsible for supplying registered investment advisors with services from Fidelity to help them build their businesses and will market Fidelity's custody, brokerage and technology services to large advisory firms on the West coast. Kim was previously vice president of sales and marketing with Transamerica Asset Management of Los Angeles.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The Securities and Exchange Commission in November will adopt corporate governance regulations to strengthen the role of independent directors, an SEC official told attendees of the Investment Company Institute's tax and accounting conference here last week. The SEC had initially said it would issue new regulations in the summer.

The SEC's performance advertising case against Van Kampen Investment Advisory Corp. of Oakbrook, Ill. - a case in which the SEC sued a fund adviser for fraud for using accurate but allegedly incomplete performance data - surprised mutual fund lawyers and left them unsure what funds must tell the public when disclosing their funds' past performances.