Money Management Executive Latest News

If asset managers want to reach and appear relevant to the 51 million Generation X and 80 million Generation Y populations, they must actively post "remarkable and fresh content" on the three biggest social media outlets: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. No question about it. That was the message from Barbara Kotlyar, senior marketing manager of data aggregator ByAllAccounts, and Loic Jeanjean, director of web marketing at financial services Internet design firm Advisor Websites, during a recent Web seminar, "Attracting Gen X & Y Clients With Social Media."

FINRA has fined Jefferies & Co. $1.5 million, ordered the investment bank to repay $425,000 in ill-gotten commissions and fees and suspended a pair of its brokers for failing to disclose additional compensation to institutional clients and other conflicts of interest related to shady sales of auction rate securities between August 2007 and March 2008.

FINRA has fined UBS Financial Services $2.5 million and ordered it to pay $8.25 million in restitution for conduct related to the sale of Lehman Brothers Holdings principal protection notes.

As more investors buy shares of mutual fund companies through their broker-dealers, those broker-dealers are taking on processing tasks that would otherwise be done by the mutual fund companies or their service providers.

Morgan Stanley’s global wealth management business net revenue rose to $3.4 billion for the first quarter, while its total advisor ranks dipped to 17,800 in line with previously reported plans for cuts.The wealth management business’ net revenue was up from $3.1 billion from the previous year due to higher commissions and asset-based revenue. The group had pre-tax income of $348 million compared with $278 million for the first quarter of 2010.

T. Rowe Price reported Thursday that quarterly earnings surged, but missed analysts’ lofty expectations.The Baltimore-based fund company reported a 27% increased in profits from a year earlier to $194.6 million, or 72 cents a share as net revenue rose 23% to $682.4 million.

Aided by a strong tailwind from market appreciation, Janus Capital Group reported an increase in profits in the first quarter as assets under management and revenue rose.The Denver mutual fund company’s earnings increased 21% to $37.9 million, or 21 cents per share, from a year earlier. Revenue was up 7.5% to $265.4 million.

Despite the recent improvements in the economy, Americans continue to grow more pessimistic about long-term retirement prospects, according to a Country Financial survey of 3,000 adults.

The Conference Board Leading Economic Index rose 0.4% in March to 114.1 (2004 = 100), following a 1.0% rise in February and a 0.2% gain in January. This puts the index at an all-time high, The Conference Board

BlackRock said it earned 35% more in this year’s first quarter, than last, helped by a “robust” pipeline of assignments for its software and technology services business.