Special Program Root Tag

NEW YORK -- One of the hottest investment markets is getting ready to add even more sizzle, as new and unique exchange-traded funds (ETFs), some currently in SEC registration and still under regulatory scrutiny, are expected to roll out shortly.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's ban on funds directing trades to brokers in exchange for shelf space, or directed brokerage, has mutual fund companies scurrying for new ways to compensate distributors.

Mutual fund giant The Vanguard Group on Friday said it plans to add a Harvard professor as an independent member of its board of directors and the board of trustees of its 128 funds.

Canadian insurance titan Sun Life Financial announced plans Thursday to reshuffle its business by separating insurance operations from its principal asset management business ahead of new capital rules from regulators, Reuters reports.

Alliance Capital Management has agreed to sell its AllianceBernstein cash management business to Federated Investors in a deal that is expected to close by the third quarter of 2005, the firms said. According to the deal, AllianceBernstein will transfer $29 billion in assets from its 22 money market funds into 21 of Federated’s money market funds.

Hedge fund Beacon Hill Asset Management and four of its top executives settled with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $4.4 million stemming from fraud charges, the Commission announced.

Securities and Exchange Commission examiners are finding instances of fund managers intentionally mispricing junk bond and small-cap stock mutual fund holdings in their ongoing investigations into the fund industry and may soon take action, Reuters reports.

About 420 days ago, the mutual fund scandal burst into the business sections of newspapers across the country and through the offices of fund firms themselves, taking with it, among others, investors’ confidence, executives’ jobs, and the industry’s formerly clean image.

Affiliated Managers Group has promoted Sean M. Healey, its president and chief operating officer, to president and chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering shifting some of its responsibilities to the states as the agency expects a surge of up to 15% in the number of investment advisors it oversees following Tuesday’s passage of hedge fund registration requirements, Dow Jones reports.

After a two-year downturn, mutual fund ownership has risen in the United States. But even as a new survey shows that investors are saving more money, experts warn those savings might not be enough to meet retirement goals.

When an investigator working for New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer found evidence implicating Marsh & McLennan in the insurance bid-rigging scandal last month, the scene at Spitzer’s Manhattan office was one of jubilation, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The announcement this week that Marsh & McLennan Chairman and CEO Jeffrey W. Greenberg had resigned touched off conflicting feelings of relief and sadness for the firm’s mutual fund unit, Putnam Investments, The Boston Globe reports.

Plan sponsors try to educate defined contribution plan participants about retirement, but the standard methods are not necessarily very effective at changing participant behavior. However, personalized programs yield dramatically different results, according to "The Evolution of Participant Communication: The Value of Personalization.," a report on the results of a study by Fidelity Investments.

The Ontario Securities Commission is talking to four prominent Canadian fund companies about settling possible market-timing violations, The Globe & Mail reports.

A 15.24% gain made Asia ex-Japan mutual funds the top-performing geographic sector funds for the third quarter of 2004, according to research from Lipper. Funds focused on Japan, however, sank.

Mutual fund firms are taking steps to honor the Securities and Exchange Commission’s pending rule that will make it illegal to use commission money to pay brokerage firms for promoting their funds, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

Franklin Templeton Investments filed "false and misleading statements" with the Securities and Exchange Commission by not admitting to wrongdoing in settling its mutual fund case, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin has charged.

Mutual fund manager Aquila Investment Management has named Diana Herrmann has its new chief executive officer.

It’s official. In a highly anticipated move, the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday voted 3-2 in favor of requiring hedge fund managers to register as investment advisors with the agency.