Money Management Executive Latest News

Morningstar has announced its three Fund Managers of the Year for domestic stock, international stock and fixed income.

TCW Group and Huntington Funds have both launched emerging markets funds, the TCW Emerging Markets Equities Fund and the Huntington Global Select Markets Fund.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has named Carlo V. di Florio director of the Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations. He was previously a partner in the financial services regulatory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was also known for his expertise in corporate governance, enterprise risk management and regulatory compliance and ethics.

The Wealth Hazards Worry Index now indicates that the number of people who believe the U.S. economy could enter another recession in 2010 now stands at 40%. Only 28% are confident a recession will not reoccur in 2010.

With borrowing in the U.S. and the U.K. at record levels, deficit concerns have prompted PIMCO to pare back its exposure to corporate bonds, Treasury Inflation Protected Securities and mortgage-backed securities. This is according to the 2010 investment outlook that PIMCO Portfolio Manager Paul McCulley recently issued.

Forty-three percent of Americans are setting financial New Year’s resolutions for 2010, Fidelity found in a survey of 1,000 people age 18 and older, up dramatically from the 35% who traditionally have said they were setting financial goals. Fidelity attributed the financial crisis to the new sensitivity to money matters.

Calamos Investments, which has $30.5 billion of assets under management, has elected to make State Street Corp. its sole investment servicing provider for all of its U.S. and global products. As a result, State Street will expand beyond its current back-office offerings to provide custody, fund administration and securities lending services.

H&R Block has settled with the New York Attorney General over alleged excessive fees it charged investors it steered to its Express IRA. The tax preparer will refund between $11.4 million and $19.4 million to customers and pay $750,000 in fines and fees.

With asset managers continuing to slice and dice the investment landscape by introducing niche products, Lazard Asset Management LLC announced Tuesday that it launched an actively managed mutual fund that focuses on infrastructure companies.

Chinese fund managers are cutting back on their equity exposure to an average of 86.4%, down from 88.3%, according to a Reuters poll. Evidently, soaring real estate prices has many investment managers expecting the Chinese government to impose monetary policies to curb the runaway prices.