Money Management Executive Latest News

Among the nominees for Morningstar’s Fund Manager of the Decade, a new award program that recognizes performance, perseverance and shareholder dedication, are managers from Fidelity, PIMCO, Oakmark and American Funds.

Continued contributions to 401(k)s and a 34% rally in the S&P 500 in the second and third quarters have propped up average balances quite strongly, Fidelity found in an analysis of the 11 million individual 401(k) accounts it serves.

The Department of Defense is now making Morningstar investment research available to all 6.5 million military personnel and their families. Previously, only members of the U.S. Navy had this access, beginning in 2002.

Seventy-five percent of fund managers do not expect the Federal Reserve to increase the Fed funds rate until the second half of 2010 or later, according to the November BoA Merrill Lynch survey of 218 fund managers with $534 billion in assets under management. Twenty percent think this might not happen until 2011.

Robert Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates, has won a U.S. patent for his fundamental indexing methodology, based on the size of a company rather than its market capitalization.

Harness Investment Management Group, founded by two former PIMCO executives Andre Mallegol and Don Yocham, have launched the Harness Absolute Return Fund. Using a top-down global macro context combined with nimble attention to secular trends and near-term opportunities, the fund aims to return absolute returns above inflation, as measured by the Consumer-Price Index.

Only 6% of wealthy investors with $500,000 or more in investable assets characterize themselves as enthusiastic about investing, while a full 49% are either reluctant or tentative about returning to the market, PNC Wealth Management found in its sixth annual Wealth and Values Investors’ Outlook survey of 1,046 investors.

Although investors have continued to overwhelmingly favor bond funds over equity funds—taxable bond funds have netted $200 billion in inflows so far this year compared with a scant $4.3 billion to equity funds—their risk tolerance has remarkably changed.

Asset managers evidently are optimistic about renewed growth in assets under management, with 47% saying they plan to expand their full-time product management staff over the next 12 months, FUSE Research Network found in surveys conducted over the past two months. However, since 80% said they laid off staff over the past year, employment levels are not likely to return to pre-crisis levels anytime soon.

ING Investment Management executives are more optimistic about the prospects of the U.S. economy and equities than many other financial forecasters.