NEWS SCAN
First Woman to Buy Seat on NYSE Dies
Best known as the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first to head one of its member firms, Muriel F. "Mickie" Siebert died of complications from cancer on August 24 at the age of 80.
She was the founder, chairwoman and CEO of Siebert Financial Corporation and its wholly owned subsidiary, Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc.
Joseph M. Ramos, the company's Chief Operating Officer, as principal executive officer, will continue handling the functions performed by Siebert.
She was also a pioneer in the discount brokerage field, transforming her firm into a discount brokerage in 1975--the first day NYSE members were allowed to negotiate commissions. In 1977, she put her firm in a blind trust to serve as New York State's first woman Superintendent of Banking--a position she held for five years.
She founded the "Siebert Personal Finance Program: Taking Control of Your Financial Future," which was created to teach basic financial skills to middle and high school students and adults.
"This is obviously a great loss not only for our company but for the financial industry in general, "said Ramos in a statement. "Mickie was a pioneer and recognized as a leader throughout the industry and beyond. She was respected as a strong voice of integrity, reason and sound business practices. Although she is best known as the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE, she really became one of the great personalities on Wall Street of either sex. Those of us who worked with her will miss her spirit, leadership and great commitment to her clients and the securities markets. We will work to continue her legacy."
Hancock Advisors Gets New Name and New Model
John Hancock Financial Network has rebranded. The firm's new name--Signator Investors--will be a sign to advisors of its commitment to grow the advisory side of its business. "The change in the brand was really to support the advisors' perception of our distribution in the independent B-D space," said Brian Heapps, president of the renamed organization.
Signator is owned by Canadian insurance company and financial services giant ManuLife Financial, which has a total of $547 billion in assets under management; in the U.S., the John Hancock brand is best known for insurance products.
But the B-D's marketing materials will now be branded as "Signator Investors Inc., powered by John Hancock Financial Network." Its advisors can brand their practice using Signator's name or any business name they choose.
RESEARCH
Estimated Long-Term Mutual Fund Flows
Total estimated outflows from long-term mutual funds were $8.72 billion for the week ending Wednesday, August 21, 2013, as reported by the Investment Company Institute.
Equity funds had estimated inflows of $1.33 billion for the week, compared to estimated inflows of $1.50 billion in the previous week.Domestic equity funds had estimated outflows of $387 million, while estimated inflows to world equity funds were $1.72 billion.
Hybrid funds, which can invest in stocks and fixed income securities, had estimated inflows of $1.10 billion for the week, compared to estimated inflows of $1.60 billion in the previous week.
Bond funds had estimated outflows of $11.15 billion, compared to estimated outflows of $3.91 billion during the previous week. Taxable bond funds saw estimated outflows of $7.38 billion, while municipal bond funds had estimated outflows of $3.77 billion.
PRODUCTS
Visium Debuts First Mutual Fund
Visium Asset Management announced the launch of the Visium Event Driven Fund (VIDVX). This is the first mutual fund offering for the alternative asset management firm, which was founded in 2005.
"We are thrilled to offer our Event Driven strategy in a mutual fund format. The Fund allows investors of all sizes the opportunity to take advantage of a strategy that seeks to provide equity--like returns with low volatility comparable to that of a high-quality fixed income portfolio," said Jacob Gottlieb, MD, CFA, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Visium Asset Management. "We believe the Fund is an excellent addition to an investor's core portfolio," he said in a statement.
First Trust Launches Diversified Income Index Fund
First Trust Advisors L.P. announced the launch of the International Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index Fund (YDIV).
This exchange-traded fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the Fund's fees and expenses) of the NASDAQ International Multi-Asset Diversified Income Index.
"The Fund will seek to deliver a relatively high level of income for investors, while also providing diversification benefits to traditional fixed income portfolios," said Ryan Issakainen, Senior Vice President and ETF Strategist at First Trust. "This diversified approach, with built-in rebalancing, may also help income-seeking investors maintain discipline during periods of volatility."
ARRIVALS
Prudential Mortgage Hires Asset Management VP
Prudential Mortgage Capital Company has hired Cheryl Eskridge as vice president of asset management for Prudential Asset Resources. Prudential Mortgage Capital Company is the commercial mortgage lending business of Prudential Financial, Inc.
Eskridge, who is rejoining the company after having served as senior director of asset management for the general account from 2004-2006, will be responsible for overseeing Prudential Asset Resources' $71.9 billion commercial mortgage portfolio. She reports directly to Hal Collett, president of Prudential Asset Resources in the unit's Dallas headquarters.
"We are excited to add someone with Cheryl's extensive experience and background to lead our asset management team," Collett said. "Her knowledge and background will enable us to continue serving our clients with the same superior quality they have come to expect from us."
Investcorp Secures Strategic Hedge Fund Hire
Investcorp's U.S.-based Hedge Fund business announced that Elena Ranguelova has come on board as Head of Credit and Equity Strategies.
This is a newly created position in which Ranguelova will be responsible for supporting the growth of both investments in emerging managers and the Single Manager Platform-Investcorp's hedge fund seeding business.
"Elena has established an exemplary track-record working with credit and equity hedge fund managers throughout her career. Her analytical experience will serve as a great complement to the depth of the Investcorp hedge fund team, and her extensive network on the sell side enhances Investcorp's ability to evaluate new emerging managers," remarked Savio Tung, CEO, North America in a statement.
(Investcorp is the parent company of SourceMedia, which publishes Money Management Executive.)
Oppenheimer & Co. Names New York Equity Sales Head
Oppenheimer & Co., a unit of Oppenheimer Holdings announced the appointment of Doron Barness to Head of New York Institutional Equity Sales Trading, working out of the firm's New York headquarters. Barness joined Oppenheimer in May 2013 from Goldman Sachs as managing director and senior sales trader for a number of significant institutional client accounts.
"We expect Doron's insight, energy and experience to have a transformative influence on Oppenheimer's trading desk in this senior capacity as we seek to expand our institutional market share," said John Hellier, head of Equity Capital Markets. "He is ideally positioned to continue the evolution of our business in the face of the ever changing nature of equity trading on Wall Street."
