Money Management Executive Latest News

"Your goals are your benchmarks."

Fund managers are moving to get independent values on over-the-counter derivatives, rather than relying on their broker-dealers.

Independent registered investment advisers continue to gain on national wirehouses, making it imperative for asset managers to offer distinctive, low-cost funds, speakers said at the FundForum USA 2010 conference in Boston.

First investment banks developed tools to act like hedge funds. Now their risk strategies are spreading to traditional money management.

Investors poured over $26.8 billion into long-term mutual funds in October, nearly twice the assets added in September, Morningstar reported on Wednesday.

Surprisingly, most Americans showed understanding of diversification, asset allocation and dollar-cost averaging, while flunking basic questions about other financial concepts in a survey for Northwestern Mutual. This discrepancy is consistent with findings in a 2006 study.

Ultra-wealthy investors, with their $25 million in household net worth, might be a tempting lure for advisors who want their business. But any professional money manager who wants them as clients has to sharpen his or her knowledge about alternative investments.

NEW YORK—“In the next five years, the asset management industry will face the first fundamental change it has seen since the 1970s when ERISA was enacted,” said Don Putnam, chairman of financial services investment banking firm Grail Partners. Market instability, pressure on margins and consolidation will continue to roil the asset management industry, and in a desperate search for returns, investors will flock to actively managed ETFs.

Pre-retirees who continuously held a 401(k) plan with Fidelity Investments for the past 10 years more than doubled their account balances, according to data released by the Boston fund company on Thursday.

In an analysis of 10 million mutual fund votes cast between 2007 and 2009, the Investment Company Institute found that the number of shareholder proposals rose, and as such, funds approved 50% of these proposals in 2009, up from 35% in 2007.