Special Program Root Tag

MorganFunShares, a closed-end fund that invests in alcohol, tobacco and casinos, will close later this year as it failed to convert enough sinners, Reuters reports. Robert Pincus, president of the fund, said he decided to close the fund due to a number of factors, including the fact the fund has only $8 million in assets and, as a closed-end fund, it is difficult to raise additional assets. Mutual funds generally are not profitable when they have less than $50 million in assets, according to Reuters.

At the core of the relationship between an investment advisor and client is trust, making the past three years especially trying.

In a move that could influence others in the mutual fund industry, Fidelity Investments has dumped a large portion of its holdings in mortgage companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Much has been said about the growth of the separately managed account industry - both in terms of the growth this market segment has experienced in the past few years and also in terms of the anticipated growth that many analysts predict. Once distribution channels become optimized to handle the expected growth of SMA money, it is widely predicted that SMAs will replace mutual funds as the investment product of choice for individual investors.

Equity funds continued to plow ahead in July, but both bonds and money market funds were hurting in the month, marking notorious firsts for both in recent history, according to data from New York-based Lipper.

arwinism is here with a vengeance," predicts a new research study co-conducted by KPMG International of London and CREATE Research, a research firm in Kent, U.K.

On top of the 9,000 it has already laid off and the 23 branches it has already shut down since 2001, Charles Schwab will lay off another 250 people and close 20 branches. This will result in charges of $35 million to $50 million in the second half of the year.

The National Association of Securities Dealers has suspended four brokers for inappropriate sales of B shares on mutual funds. A fifth broker is contesting the charges.

Most fund managers believe equities are fairly valued, and 85% think the economy will improve over the next 12 months, Merrill Lynch's monthly survey of fund managers shows. Their cash positions of 4% of assets this month remain at the same levels from the month before, and many are moving into general industrial and energy stocks.

The three-year bear market and unemployment have caused investors to be less concerned with growing their portfolio than merely protecting their assets, a John Hancock Financial survey shows. And this focus is likely to continue for some time to come. Seventy-six percent of the 600 people interviewed said they are more conservative today and 73% said they are unlikely to invest in a product that runs the risk of losing money. Nearly three-quarters, 72%, said they expect to continue this mindset even once the economy recovers, and 63% said they are more focused on asset protection than on growth.

Phoenix Investment Partners' new asset allocation mutual funds (see MME 8/18/03) are noticeably lacking back-end loaded B shares. Phoenix spokeswoman Sharon Bray notes that B shares sales at the fund firm have dropped dramatically over the past few years.

Eric R. Dinallo, chief of the investment protection bureau in the office of the New York State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, has joined Morgan Stanley as managing director and head of regulatory affairs. In this role, Dinallo will work with federal and state regulators, as well as industry self-regulatory organizations. He will start Sept. 8, reporting to Chief Legal Officer Donald Kempf.

FleetBoston Financial has hired Tracey Esherick to be a managing director for the banking and investing products group in Fleet's personal financial services business. In this role, Esherick is responsible for designing, pricing and building product relationship strategies for the Boston banking company's consumer banking and investment business lines for a retail customer base of more than 5.5 million consumer households. She reports to Brad Warner, executive vice president in charge of personal financial services at Fleet.

Portfolio managers George P. Fraise and Gordon M. Marchand have returned to John Hancock Advisers as managers of the John Hancock U.S. Global Leaders Growth Fund. The two had managed the fund through sub-advisor and Hancock subsidiary Yeager, Wood & Marshall until July, when Hancock terminated its relationship with the firm because the two managers were leaving to form their own company. Fraise and Marchand will now be Hancock employees while also still serving as principals of their new firm, Sustainable Growth Partners. If and when the fund's board approves hiring Sustainable Growth as the fund's sub-advisor, Fraise and Marchand will no longer be Hancock employees.

Wells Real Estate Funds has hired Michael Dobbs, formerly senior vice president of marketing for Cingular Wireless, as its chief marketing officer. Dobbs has worked as a marketer in the real estate and communications fields for nearly 20 years.

NEW YORK - If only they knew. Many investors who don't own annuities, most of whom own mutual funds, might be interested in buying one - that is, if only they understood how annuities worked, according to a recent survey unveiled here at the annual meeting for the National Association for Variable Annuities of Reston, Va.

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. and the Japan Securities Depository Center (JSDC) want to expand their existing partnership to share information on depository services, clearance and settlement, risk management, infrastructure and legal issues, and straight-through processing. The Japan Securities Depository Center is particularly interested in the DTCC’s settlement system based on delivery rather than on payment.

American Century has filed with Kansas City to build a $44 million, 12-to-14-story office building to accommodate expected growth, The Kansas City Star reports. The fund company is planning to have it completed between 2008 and 2010.

Saying that it is not cost-effective to buy less than $5,000 worth of Treasury or corporate bonds or less than $10,000 worth of municipals, a new Charles Schwab report recommends bond funds over individual bonds for most investors.

Schoolhouse Capital, the program manager for New Mexico’s 529 plan, and New York Life Investment Management, the plan’s distributor, have added a stable value portfolio from New York Life to the plan, CollegeSense 529 Higher Education Savings Plan.