Special Program Root Tag

Some see Baby Boomers as a marketing opportunity, but not Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Greenspan warns they might crack the economy – if the country does not prepare adequately. He made his remarks at a symposium sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Large mutual fund providers like Vanguard and Fidelity Investments will feel the brunt of new proxy disclosure guidelines, experts predict. New regulations requiring mutual fund companies to provide a complete account of proxy votes will definitely have an impact on how mutual funds are viewed, CBS MarketWatch.com reports.

UBS AB cinched a deal Tuesday to buy Charles Schwab & Co's institutional market making, research and trading department for $265 million, Bloomberg reports. By selling its capital markets unit, Schwab is expected to regain its focus on individual investors and financial advisers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday the settlement of enforcement actions against three former Invesco executives for their role in a market-timing scheme that allowed preferred clients to make excessive trades in exchange for sticky assets.

Fidelity Investments said on Tuesday that it lowered the expenses on five of its equity index funds offered primarily to individual and group retirement plans, capping the ratios at 10 basis points.

Newly disclosed proxy records indicate that Vanguard wields considerable power on Wall Street. Last year, the fund giant contested nominations of board members in more than half of the companies in its mutual funds' portfolios, according to the company's Web site.

Accounting software supplier Global Investment Systems, which provides fund accounting software to the mutual fund, securities and alternative investment industries, has rolled out a new advertising campaign this month.

State Street Global Alliance has announced a definitive agreement to buy a minority interest in GovernanceMetrics International.

If mutual funds do not consider mergers, they will be forced to close down, Reuters reports. Because of more educated and skeptical investors and new costs thanks to the ongoing scandal, moves like that recently made by BlackRock Financial to buy State Street Research will not only become the norm, but a necessity.

To keep talented and honest people, mutual fund firms would be best advised to adopt a sort of "corporate culture," a Morningstar analyst attests.

Franklin Resources Inc. said in a filing that it may be in trouble from the state of California for revenue-sharing payments made to brokerage fims, Dow Jones reports. In addition, the company said California Attorney General Bill Lockyer told the company that enforcement action would be authorized.

PFPC Inc., a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., announced Wednesday that it will offer a middle-office suite of services for both traditional and alternative asset managers in Europe.

Assets in variable annuities totaled $1,047,148 at the end of the second quarter of the year, up a scant 1.7% from $1,029,484 at the end of the first quarter but up 18% from $886,308 in the second quarter of 2003, the National Association for Variable Annuities announced.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s next huge settlement could come from British/U.S.-based Amvescap, London’s Financial Times reports. People privy to discussions between the two parties postulate that a settlement could take place just after Sept. 6, Labor Day in the United States.

American Funds continued its high-paced belting of the competition by placing five of its funds in Financial Research Corp.’s top 10 list for July, a month that saw the mutual fund industry as a whole rake in inflows of $12 billion.

U.S. hedge funds, which were all but eradicated from many Asian regions after they were blamed for the continent’s financial crisis of the 1990s, are returning in places like Hong Kong and Singapore, adding another chapter to what has been a sometimes tumultuous, sometimes spectacular, but never dull relationship, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Affiliated Managers Group last week announced it will create a new subsidiary to create, distribute and service separately managed accounts and mutual funds. To be called Managers Investment Group, the new unit amounts to a minor sea change in AMG's business tactics, which mainly focus on bringing distribution muscle to boutique investment firms in exchange for a stake in their operations. AMG intends for Managers Investment Group to act as a servicing hub for at least 75 mutual funds and separately managed accounts now sold through banks, brokerage firms and independent distributors. The soon-to-be launched platform will utilize the operational and distribution expertise of the company's fund family (Managers Funds), institutional investment subsidiary (Portfolio Services Group) and back-office unit (Advantage Outsourcing Solutions) and partner with the marketing division of Rorer Asset Management.

It's time for fund companies to show their hands.

Although only two asset management firms have come to market with initial public offerings (IPOs) this year, the fact that there have been any at all has triggered speculation that investment management IPOs may slowly be coming back into vogue.

By definition, intangibles cannot be measured, but that's exactly what Morningstar's recently launched Fiduciary Grade system is attempting. Last week, the Chicago-based fund research and ratings firm unveiled its newest offering, which assigns a letter grade to more than 600 funds assessing how well a fund company's, and its manager's, interests are aligned with those of shareholders. Morningstar plans to extend this rating to an additional 1,500 funds.