Money Management Executive Latest News

"People have said to me, Why in the world have you joined a back-office company?'" said Ross Ellis, the newly-named director of product development and distribution at SEI Investments of Oaks, Pa. "But SEI is the most front-office of any back-office firm."

Investors in the $40 million Navellier Aggressive Small Cap Equity Fund may not have to pay the costs of a lawsuit between the fund's adviser and two of its trustees.

Pioneer Investment Management of Boston has purchased the tiny $8.8 million Third Avenue High Yield Fund from EQSF Advisers, the New York-based adviser to the five fund Third Avenue Trust fund complex, for an undisclosed amount. As part of the arrangement, Margaret Patel, the fund's current portfolio manager, will continue to manage the fund. Pending approval of Third Avenue High Yield fund shareholders, the fund will become the Pioneer High Yield Fund.

Liberty Financial has tapped Context Integration, a systems integrator focused on web applications, to help put into use the latest version of Broadvision's personalization software on the web sites of Stein Roe, Liberty Funds, Keyport and the Independent Financial Marketing Group.

Net sales of stock mutual funds were $12.29 billion in July, a decrease of about $6.8 billion from June, the Investment Company Institute reported last week. Total stock fund assets decreased to approximately $3.4 trillion, a drop of about 1.7 percent from June, the ICI said. Overall, net sales of stock funds through July are about 29 percent below the level of sales during the same period last year, the ICI reported. Industry assets decreased to $6.031 trillion in July, a decrease of 0.7 percent from June, according to the ICI.

The multiples for mutual fund companies are about eight percent less than the multiples for money management firms that run institutional assets, according to data released last week by Putnam, Lovell, de Guardiola & Thornton, the investment banking firm based in San Francisco. Data for year-to-date mergers and acquisitions of institutional and retail money management firms shows that institutional firms are being valued at 9.3 times annual pre-tax earnings and mutual fund companies are being valued at 8.6 times annual pre-tax earnings, the firm said.

The Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. has followed in the footsteps of the SEC and is now offering investors an Internet device that can calculate fund costs over time.

The Kobrick Funds LLC of Boston is taking steps to add sales charges to the previously no-load fund group. The group's three funds - Kobrick Growth, Capital and Emerging Growth - will add class A, B and C shares, the company said in a statement. The funds will be sold through New England Funds of Boston. Both Kobrick Funds and New England Funds are affiliates of Nvest, LP of Boston. The move to add sales charges provides Kobrick funds a means of taking advantage of the distribution capabilities of New England Funds, said Frederick Kobrick, president and CEO of Kobrick Funds, in a statement last week. Kobrick Funds has more than $500 million in assets under management.

Phoenix Investment Counsel of Hartford is asking shareholders to approve a proposal to rename one of the Phoenix Funds as part of the firm's effort to brand its funds. Phoenix has proposed changing the name of the $314 million Phoenix Strategic Allocation Fund to the Phoenix-Oakhurst Strategic Allocation Fund, according to a proxy statement filed with the SEC Aug. 30. Phoenix's Oakhurst Division in Scotts Valley, Calif. includes prominent portfolio managers Steven Colton and Dong Hao Zhang.

The Principal Financial Group of Des Moines, Iowa wants to compete with the biggest mutual fund companies in the industry and is willing to raise management fees in several of its mutual funds to achieve its goal, according to a proxy statement filed with the SEC.