Special Program Root Tag

Transamerica Taps Barlow As Regional Vice President

The investment management industry is constantly developing new products and chasing new ideas to attract assets, and separately managed accounts have been no different. First came SMAs, and then, multi-style accounts followed by unified managed accounts.

American Century Investments is aiming lower: lower age investors, lower minimum investments and lower-cost financial goals.

American Century Investments has acquired a former H&R Block building near its headquarters in the twin towers on Main Street in Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reports. Terms of the deal, set to close on Nov. 30, were not disclosed.

Eaton Vance announced Tuesday that its earnings in the second quarter rose 2% to $38.5 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Oct. 31, and that they would have been higher, were it not for long-term debt and a 17% increase in employee compensation, Reuters reports.

Bank of America will acquire U.S. Trust from Charles Schwab for $3.3 billion and hopes to ease integration by retaining key staff who work with clients and through technology, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Orange County Sherrif Kevin Beary is filing a class-action lawsuit against Nationwide Insurance claiming the company took up to hundreds of millions in mutual fund fees paid to state employees’ and teachers’ retirement plans, from the early 1996 to the present, WKMG-TV reports.

Pennsylvania has selected Vanguard and Upromise to replace Delaware Investments as manager and recordkeeper, respectively, of its 529 college savings plan.

With more exchange-traded funds being offered and their assets swelling to $350.3 billion, companies have begun to launch ancillary products and services, such as newsletters and ETF funds-of-funds, including target-date ETFs, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Three companies will be making their final bids for Putnam Investments before the Thanksgiving holiday, according to people familiar with the deal, The Wall Street Journal reports. They are Amvescap, Unicredito Italiano and Power Corp. However, a decision on which offer to accept, if any, by parent company March & McLennan isn’t expected for several weeks.

Computer, Internet and telecommunications stocks are up this year, and value mutual funds, which typically don’t invest in those sectors, are benefiting since many of them have been snatching up these stocks over the past two years, Bloomberg reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining whether Allegiant Asset Management accepted kickback payments from its fund administrator to pay for marketing, the investment management firm's parent company, National City, revealed in an SEC filing.

Despite the midterm election shakeup, Washington-watchers expect very little new legislation affecting the fund industry to shake out of Congress before 2008.

NEW YORK-It used to be that investors saw so-called emerging markets as deep pools of resources that helped fuel the powerhouse economies of Western Europe and the United States. Investing in international stocks seemed like a smart strategy, but only safe enough for a small portion of one's portfolio.

NEW YORK-Just as exchange-traded funds have taken the fund industry by storm over the past few years, industry executives expect unified managed accounts to be the next wildly popular investment choice due to their simplicity, automatic rebalancing and diversification.

Before he leaves his position as New York attorney general to become governor of the state, Eliot Spitzer may unleash one, perhaps two, more whopper enforcement actions against major Wall Street firms, David Brown, the A.G.'s investment protection chief, indicated at a Reuters Investment Banking Summit in New York last week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission expects to charge more hedge funds with illegal trading, Linda Thomsen, director of enforcement at the SEC, indicated last week.

Phoenix Names Aylward President of Subsidiary

Complexes offering target-date funds will soon be joined by a hefty new entrant: American Funds, the 800-pound gorilla, which, year to date through August, has attracted more than 37% of the $123 billion in assets flowing to the top 50 fund complexes, according to Financial Research Corp. of Boston.

NEW YORK-As the unified managed account industry continues to grow, money managers must train financial advisers adequately to sell their products. As companies enter the UMA business, their most important task will be to continually educate, train and support advisers, speakers said during Financial Research Associates' Unified Managed Accounts conference here last week.