Money Management Executive Latest News

Goldman Sachs has filed with the SEC to offer its first line of exchange-traded funds, running the gamut from equity to fixed income to balanced. According to one report, the inaugural fund will concentrate on the top 85% of companies in the emerging markets of India, Korea, Brazil and China.

With the Putnam Voyager Fund up 65.6% in 2009, ranking in the top 2% of large-cap growth funds, The Boston Globe has named manager Nick Thakore Boston Capital Fund Manager of the Year. The fund has handily outpaced its benchmark Russell 1000 Growth Index, up 39.3%, by more than 26 percentage points.

Americans are divided on their outlook for the economy in 2010, with 32% thinking the status quo will prevail, 28% expecting things to get worse, and 29% hoping for improvement, according to a survey by Country Financial.

When mutual fund investors receive their year-end statements, most will be uplifted by the fact that the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is up 24.9% for the year through Dec. 24, according to Lipper data.

Tiger Woods’ approval rating may sink even lower than its current 40%, once stock and mutual fund investors in companies he endorses realize they have lost $12 billion since his extramarital scandal broke, according to estimates by researchers at the University of California, Davis.

Advisor Software Inc. of Lafayette, Calif., has bought Advisor Partners LLC, to expand its offerings to registered investment advisers and organizations.

Van Eck Global has used municipal bond exchange-traded funds to make a name for itself in the tax-exempt investment arena, and the firm sees more growth ahead.

At least one upside to the financial crisis is that it has most likely turned people between the ages of 18 and 25 into lifelong savers, much as it impacted young people who lived during the Great Depression, according to a report by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Investors are returning to hedge funds, but in a small way, with managers attracting smaller pools of cash and making more concessions to investors.

Fidelity investors can now electronically transfer funds from their bank accounts to the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, making this the first national donor-advised fund program to make e-transfers possible.