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The law firm Schriffrin & Barroway of Bala Cnwyd, Pa., filed an administrative complaint Friday against Charles Schwab for allowing preferred customers to engage in illegal and improper trading practices.

Global investment manager Amvescap of London announced Friday it will acquire U.S. wealth management firm Stein Roe Investment Counsel for $117.5 million in cash and stock

Global Investment Systems announced Friday its newly launched compliance software is leading the charge in putting the proper controls in place to combat market timing and other trading abuses.

House Passes Baker Bill, Updated to Address Scandal

Asset management firm Dreyfus will market $4.7 billion in Bear Stearns assets, the companies announced last Tuesday.

Broker compensation deals among mutual funds are attracting more intense regulatory scrutiny for possible conflicts of interest as the $7 trillion mutual fund industry remains on the defensive.

Think mutual fund investors are the only ones trying to decipher which sponsors have been naughty and which have been nice?

WASHINGTON - Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee last week, SEC Chairman William Donaldson called for the formation of a new risk assessment unit to circumvent abuses in mutual funds and other investments.

After posting its best single-quarter showing since 2000, UBS shattered mostly all forecasts and, at the same time, announced the end to the global bear market. "It's obviously true that the bear market is over," said Peter Wuffli, UBS chief executive.

Insurance companies are gearing up for the holiday season with new ads. MetLife has added two television spots and two print ads to its "Have you met life today?" campaign. The company is targeting the Thanksgiving holidays, focusing on encouraging people to make sure they have enough income for retirement. MetLife is using the phrases "create your own pension plan" and "guaranteed income for life" to promote its annuities to Baby Boomers.

Generation X may have a nebulous name, but female Gen Xers are clear when it comes to their finances, according to a survey by Allstate Financial. Women of the Baby Boom, who range in age from 38 to 57, have saved on average $451,000. Women of Generation X, who range in age from 24 to 37, have saved on average $410,000. Savings include pensions and other company-sponsored plans.

Pilgrim Baxter CEO, Co-Founder Quit in Probe

After interviewing the CEO of a Geneva-based fund company at their Park Avenue headquarters some years ago, I couldn't help but notice their private stretch limousine parked out front. The vanity plates tipped it off. The shareholders sure would love to know about that one, I thought at the time.

A former Vanguard investment fund manager has established a wealth management firm in California to target millionaire investors he sees as relatively neglected, a group that analysts say midsize banks also are pursuing.

Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) has suggested banishing the phrase "mutual fund" from our financial vocabulary because of investors wrongly thinking they collectively own a fund company.

Securities and Exchange Commission proposals to prevent mutual fund managers from engaging in market timing – the after-hours trades for self-gain that brought scandal to the industry – may end up hurting the investors SEC is trying to protect, employers and retirement plan experts say.

MFS Investment Management may not be the only fund company to put a moratorium on soft-dollar and shelf-space arrangements with broker/dealers, Money Management Executive reports in this coming Monday’s issue.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer have charged Gary Pilgrim, Harold Baxter and Pilgrim-Baxter & Associates with securities fraud and civil charges, respectively. Spitzer’s suit says the executives permitted a hedge fund, a broker/dealer and other clients to make illegal trades in the PBHG mutual fund family.

Asset custody could get a little bit easier and less confusing now that the SEC has changed Rule 206(4)-2 – which oversees asset custody – under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. Effective on Nov. 5, the agency withdrew previous no-action letters, which governed custody rules. Now the 8,048 SEC-registered advisers must comply with the new rules by April 1, 2004.

True to projections, Cigna Corp. made it official this week that it will sell its pension and 401(k) business to Prudential Financial for $2.1 billion in cash, making Prudential one of the country's leading retirement services and products providers.