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KeyCorp has sold its asset management and broker-dealer businesses for more than $50 million less than originally anticipated.

Fund sponsors have long debated the relative merits of building, buying or outsourcing fund administration technology. As sponsors face more and more data-driven demands from regulators and investors, there is increased pressure to adopt new efficient technologies for fund administration process such as expense payments and budgeting, regulatory reporting and financial reporting. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the "build, buy or outsource" question a mix of cost pressures, resources, reporting requirements and technological advances have tipped the balance in favor of "buy" and "outsource."

Morgan Stanley and Co. has agreed to pay $100,000 to the New Jersey Bureau of Securities. This came after Bureau investigators found the company was in violation of state securities laws and regulations in its sale of non-traditional exchange-traded funds to investors.

These are stressful times for the mutual fund industry. An obvious statement, but one authored by a colleague ten years ago. Even more interesting is that the trends cited then are the same concerns that we hear from clients today. So what has changed?

Finding ways to reach shareholders with an appropriate message and choosing the medium to do so consumes the resources of many a fund company. Firms need to communicate bad news to shareholders in a gentle manner, trumpet the good news and economize the delivery of mandated disclosure information.

Views are mixed on the impact of the recent Securities and Exchange Commission decision to lift the general solicitation ban on private securities offerings.

Flexible Plan Investments recently partnered (as sub-advisor) with Advisor Preferred to launch The Gold Bullion Strategy Fund (QGLDX), the industry's first gold bullion fund offered to retail investors through a mutual fund product, which began trading at $25 per share on July 8.

The members of Generation Y, also known as "millennials," have vastly different backgrounds and expectations than the generations before them. Today's 20-somethings can't remember a time without smartphones or the ability to access the information most important to them whenever they need it. It would be easy for some mutual fund managers to assume that millennials lack the same mindset or appetite for risk when it comes to investing and saving than previous generations, and view attracting them to mutual funds as a Herculean task. However, both of these assumptions are false. If managers embrace the technology and engagement with companies they trust that millennials have grown up with, they can successfully grow their assets by appealing to this relatively untapped investor base.

Former U.S. Senate aides Michael Piwowar and Kara M. Stein won confirmation as members of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The current SEC chairman Mary Jo White was also confirmed to a full term that expires June 5, 2019.

The safety of its employees is top of mind with T.Rowe Price executives. So much so, that the company’s CEO James A.C. Kennedy is weighing whether to remain at its current Pratt Street headquarters in Baltimore.