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Janus paid its chief executive officer, Gary Black, $10.6 million in 2006, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows. His based salary was $800,000 and the rest of his compensation was performance-based.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is going to revisit 12b-1 fees, according to Andrew Donohue, director of the SEC’s division of investment management, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A 65-year-old couple retiring in 2007 will need $215,000 to cover medical costs, according to Fidelity Investments. This is a 7.5% increase from expenses in 2006. Since Fidelity began estimating these costs in 2002, they have risen an average of 6.1% a year. The figure doesn’t include over-the-counter medications, dental work or long-term care.

With assets more than doubling in mutual funds in Australia since 2003, asset management firms around the world are looking to enter or expand in the market, Bloomberg reports.

Hedge fund Beacon Rock Capital has agreed to pay $475,000 to settle charges that it market timed mutual funds between 1999 and 2003, the Associated Press reports. It is the first criminal case against a hedge fund for market timing.

With an eye to gaining a foothold in China, Legg Mason is opening offices in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, Reuters reports.

The rule that the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed in 2004 that would require fund boards to be overseen by an independent chairman and be 75% comprised by independent directors, including the chairman now that the comment period ended on March 2, is about to be discarded by, writes Dow Jones column Chuck Jaffe.

Philip Goldstein, one of the principals of Bulldog Investors hedge fund, succeeded last year in overturning the hedge fund registration rule. He also is challenging a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would require it to disclose its holdings every quarter, citing theft of intellectual property.

Critics of 401(k) plans say they have failed the nation's workers because they don't equip them with financial advice. Although the Pension Protection Act prescribes giving guidance, it is vague on what it should constitute and, therefore, hasn't prompted many plan sponsors or administrators to provide such assistance. Without clear rules, they are afraid of fiduciary liability.

Although the market was hammered this month by subprime loans, individual mutual funds aren't likely to have much exposure to the volatile sector. Most subprime lenders are small-cap companies, and, as such, funds won't have large amounts of cash invested in them. In addition, most mutual funds are diversified.

While more than a dozen pilot companies are minding their interactive Ks and Qs, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox is pushing extensible business reporting language (XBRL) beyond quarterly filings to a new way for consumers to pick investments.

Since late 2006, fund executives have been fretting over a past accounting treatment and reinterpretation of an accounting standard for municipal bond funds.

As it approaches its first birthday, the Gaming and Casino Fund, now managed by Ahrens Advisors of Dallas, is ready to welcome a brand new parent.

Critics of 401(k) plans say they have failed the nation's workers because they don't equip them with financial advice. Although the Pension Protection Act prescribes giving guidance, it is vague on what it should constitute and, therefore, hasn't prompted many plan sponsors or administrators to provide such assistance. Without clear rules, they are afraid of fiduciary liability.

ICI Selects Olson as Senior Counsel of Int'l Affairs

If you're sitting in your exhibition booth reading this, it's probably time for atonement. Oh, and put down that bagel. On your feet!

JPMorgan Finds Flaws in Target-Date Funds' Design

Anthropologist Gregory Bateson wrote about the difference between map and territory in his 1972 book, "Steps to an Ecology of Mind." By this he meant that the maps we hold in our minds, while often useful, can in no way be expected to reflect the complexity of the real-world territory they are designed to represent.

As private banks and trust companies try to increase their stakes in the investment marketplace, they are building their own platforms, and increasingly those platforms are open architecture, according to a study released by Prudential Financial. The report, prepared by 3C Financial Partners, includes data from 65 private bank and trust companies and offers a nine-step best-practice perspective of how to break into the investment marketplace. Of those banks, 9% said they were researching various platforms to buy, and 38% said they were already renting platforms. Another 17% said they were building platforms of their own, while 35% said they planned to make no changes.The most common type of platforms is an open-architecture-style smorgasbord of investment options. “There is no doubt that banks recognize the need for more flexible, objective and competitive investment offerings to their clients,” said Kevin Osborn, vice president at Prudential Investments.

At first, mutual fund managers said they didn’t think the subprime loan disaster would affect them. But now, real estate funds, even though many of them are concentrated on commercial investments, are feeling the heat, The Wall Street Journal reports. In addition, so are funds with large exposure to homebuilder companies or regional banks that had been making the loans. What’s impacting these funds—particularly real estate funds—is the concern of investors that defaults on risky mortgages will spread from residential investments to commercial. In addition, because real estate funds have had such a tremendous run-up in recent years, some believe their day in the sun is reaching an end. In the past month, real estate funds have declined an average of 4.7%. But because they were the best-performing category in 2006, they are still up 5.16% year to date and 25.5% for the 12 months ended March 21. “There’s been a lot of talk on the backburner [about] when is real estate going to cool,” said Andrew Gogerty, a Morningstar analyst. “This could be the trigger.” Nonetheless, stalwarts think the effect will be short-lived. “The knee-jerk reaction by the market is to correct anything that is related to real estate,” said Jay Rosenberg¸ co-manager of the First American Real Estate Securities Fund. “The stock price reaction is a bit overdone,” agreed Brad Hamilton, co-manager of the Weitz Value Fund. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.