Money Management Executive Latest News

Van Kampen Investment Advisory Corp. of Oakbrook, Ill. and former company chief investment officer Alan Sachtleben have agreed to pay $125,000 in fines for what the SEC said was misleading advertising about the performance of the Van Kampen Growth Fund. The SEC announced the settlement Sept. 8.

Legg Mason of Baltimore, Md., announced that it has acquired Berkshire Asset Management of Wilkes-Barre, Penn., a firm that manages assets for high-net-worth individuals and institutions.

While the open-end fund world has had Internet products on the market for several years, the closed-end world is just now introducing its first Internet fund.

Closed-end fund activist Ronald Olin is asking shareholders of the Portugal Fund to elect Olin's own slate of directors in a vote on opening the closed-end fund. Olin also promises to submit a proposal at the shareholder meeting scheduled for Oct. 15 recommending that, if the Portugal Fund is opened, a proposed 1.5-percent redemption fee be waived.

Sony Life Insurance Co., a financial services subsidiary of Sony Corp. of Tokyo, plans to begin selling 18 mutual funds in Japan over the Internet, beginning in October. This is Sony Life's first foray into selling mutual funds. Sony Corp. evidently plans to enter other areas of the financial services market as well, having amended its articles of incorporation in June to do so.

NASD Regulation has proposed a rule to bar broker/dealers from paying registered representatives more for selling proprietary mutual funds than for selling funds offered by outside fund companies. The practice of paying representatives more for selling house funds can create a conflict of interest between representatives and their clients, NASDR said in issuing the rule proposal Sept. 2. NASDR members have until Oct. 29 to comment on the proposal. In June, NASDR officials said they expected to issue such a proposal to ban extra pay for proprietary sales this summer. (MFMN, 7/12/99)

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. of New York said it would keep its mutual fund and annuity businesses separate from those of General American Life Insurance Co. of St. Louis, Mo. MetLife announced on Aug. 27 it would acquire General American, which had been unable to repay short-term funding agreements.

UAM Investment Services of Boston has begun including transcripts and audio replays of conference calls of mutual fund managers with shareholders and investment advisors in the advisor area of its recently-upgraded web site, the company announced.

An affiliate of Chevy Chase Bank of Chevy Chase, Md. is starting a new mutual fund family.

Driehaus Capital Management, an investment adviser in Chicago, has named John Angley director of sales. In this newly-created position at Driehaus, Angley will be responsible for raising awareness of the firm among potential clients.