Special Program Root Tag

The head of the world's No. 1 mutual fund company said last Tuesday that forcing firms to hire independent chairmen might not be the end-all solution to fixing problems in the industry.

James T. McCurdy, a 23-year veteran mutual fund auditor who was recently sanctioned by the Securities and Exchange Commission and given a one-year "time out" from the industry, has vowed to appeal that decision to the SEC's Commissioners, and will file for a stay of that penalty.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Investors and financial planners still have yet to uncover the tremendous benefits of annuity lifetime payouts but are slowly getting the message, thanks to such efforts as those of Ben Stein, this year's honorary chairman of the National Retirement Planning Coalition. As well, the National Association for Variable Annuities (NAVA) will be training 1,000 top producers throughout the country on variable and fixed annuities.

Understanding mutual fund statements should be a heck of a lot easier now that federal regulators have okayed new disclosure rules that would spell out more clearly the fees imposed on shareholders.

Fifteen brokerages settled with the SEC and NASD for $21.5 million for not providing customers with $86 million worth of breakpoint discounts they were owed. The deal, struck earlier this month, also requires the firms to repay investors what they are owed.

Franklin Resources' legal problems were extended to the tune of a massive class-action lawsuit filed by California investors.

Registering with the SEC should not be a requirement of hedge funds, at least not in the mind of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

It is said that the only constant is change. The past year has illustrated this point in the financial services industry, having brought conditions and concerns to light that are dramatically changing how fund firms do business. Eliot Spitzer's exposure of illegal and questionable business practices and the SEC's and NASD's investigations into breakpoint issues have resulted in rapid changes throughout the mutual fund industry.

There is something to be said for being in the right place at the right time. E*Trade Group announced an initiative to partially refund 12b-1 fees to investors using its service last summer, and the firm now has in place a rebate program pertaining to one of the hottest topics in the fund industry.

Insurance company executives are going through a lot of contortions to make money in the variable insurance business today.

With trillions - that's trillions with a T' - of dollars in assets at stake, forward-looking mutual fund companies are honing their marketing efforts and developing improved products to take advantage of the coming boom in IRA rollovers. But in the quest to capture rollover assets from 401(k)s and other qualified retirement plans, the "transfer of assets" process is a weak link for many fund firms. Across the industry, the cumbersome process creates the potential for delays in transfers between custodians, misallocations in new accounts, possible shareholder gain/loss issues and other errors that can undermine customer relationships and hinder business growth.

T. Rowe Tabs Miller Director Fixed-Income, Reynolds to Retire in April

New York -- The stakes are definitely higher today for all of those involved in sponsoring, managing and distributing tax-favored 529 college savings plans. That was the consensus among a panel of experts and members of the recently formed not-for-profit College Savings Foundation (CSF) here in New York at a media conference earlier this month.

In a conference call earlier today, Old Mutual CEO Jim Sutcliffe said that a settlement in the fund-trading probe at Pilgrim Baxter would take months, Reuters reports.

The editors of Money Management Executive want to know how Fundgate has affected your sales environment, customer service approach and communications at your firm. Our first questionnaire on Eliot Spitzer, the Investment Company Institute and regulatory reform was successfully completed last month. Keep an eye on MME for the results.

Joining a growing bandwagon of top investment and executive officers issuing open letters to shareholders, Fidelity Chairman Edward "Ned" Johnson 3rd notwithstanding (see "Fidelity Chairman Advises Caution to Regulators," PIMCO’s Bill Gross issued one of his own Friday. Gross’s take on the burgeoning fund scandal, which has now implicated his own firm, is that investigators may have gone too far.

Michael Travaglini, a Putnam Investments executive who has also served as head of Boston’s retirement fund operation, has been selected as the new director of Massachussetts’ state pension fund, a $32 billion fund which has been looking for a new executive director since last summer, Reuters reports.

After uncovering its first case of improper trading, Singapore is on guard and asking companies in its $10 billion mutual fund industry to ensure that the one instance was isolated, Reuters reports.

Exchange-traded funds were a hot investment product last year, the Investment Company Institute reports, but apparently mostly among institutional investors.

Fidelity investors making online stock trades, no matter how many trades are involved, will now pay a flat rate of $8 per trade instead of the penny per share they are currently charged.