Special Program Root Tag

Wealth managers providing separately managed accounts and private client services are going to vie most actively for the assets of the very wealthy in the coming years, a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey shows. Seventy-one percent of wealth managers expect to increase their number of ultra-high-net-worth clients with $50 million or more to invest, but only 14% plan to increase the number of affluent clients with $100,000 to invest.

Waddell & Reed Financial has launched an expanded Ivy Funds family following the merger of several Ivy Funds into similar W&R funds, a move approved by shareholders.

PFPC, a member of the PNC Financial Services Group, has named Brian R. Burns president and chief executive officer of PFPC Distributors, a limited-purpose broker/dealer and a subsidiary of PFPC. As president and CEO, Burns will implement a national wholesaling services business. He will also continue in his role as senior vice president of PFPC's integrated banking transaction services.

Citizens Advisers, the investment advisor to Citizens Funds, has hired Robert F. Behan as vice president, director of sales. His chief responsibilities are institutional sales and client service management, as well as consultant relations.

James Mackay has joined Investors Management Group as its new president. He has more than 20 years of experience and a strong background in the financial services industry, including management positions in investment banking, securities brokerage and investment management. As president of Investors Management Group, Mackay will be charged with providing strategic direction for the firm as it continues to grow its fixed-income and equity management business.

Nancy M. Lavin has joined Touchstone Investments as regional vice president for the Northeast. Lavin has nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, most recently as northeast regional vice president at Navellier & Associates, in charge of wholesaling separate accounts and mutual funds. Prior to joining Navellier, Lavin served as a regional vice president, also for the northeast, at Northstar/Pilgrim Funds. She has also worked for National Funds, Kidder Peabody and Merrill Lynch.

SEI Investments, provider of asset management and investment technology solutions, has made Electronic Trading Services capable of straight-through-processing. Eligible equity trades can now be handled entirely automatically, without any manual intervention – from the order, to the marketplace and back to the system of record. The company claims this maximizes efficiency of the portfolio manager. Trades are executed, processed, settled and accounted for without the need for any human intervention.

PFPC, a member of the PNC Financial Services Group, has launched a program that will offer clients the ability to deposit funds intended for brokerage accounts via ATM machines. Customers can deposit a check, and if it is received before 3 p.m. Eastern time, it will be processed the next day. The funds are moved from the point of deposit in a completely paperless transaction.

Due to the improving stock market, merger activity among U.S. investment firms is starting to show more life, Reuters reports.

With the stock market’s recent rally, investors in actively managed funds are getting more bang for their buck, The Wall Street Journal reports.

British fund manager F&C Management said Friday it has been engaged in talks to relinquish control of $68 billion in assets to Mellon Global Securities in order to focus on its core competencies, Reuters reports.

Money manager John Hancock Funds will merge its Pacific Basin fund into its International fund this fall, Reuters reports. The tiny Basin fund, with only $20 million in assets, is not attracting sufficient investor interest to let it stand on its own, Hancock said.

More plan sponsors want to combine their defined contribution and defined benefits plans, a study by Fidelity Investments says.

In response to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s charge that one of its representatives improperly sold mutual fund B shares and that it failed to monitor its sale of various classes of mutual funds, Prudential Securities has agreed to pay $382,000. However, Prudential neither confirmed nor denied the allegations. The settlement broke down to $300,000 in civil penalties, and $82,000 of which will serve as reparations to investors reportedly hurt by the companies’ conduct.

AARP, a 35 million-member non-profit advocacy organization of people 50 years of age and older, threw its support behind many of the provisions of the Mutual Funds Integrity and Fee Transparency Act of 2003 on Thursday, ahead of Friday’s markup of the proposal.

Janus bond fund manager Sandy Refenacht is quitting the firm, becoming one of the latest in a string of people to leave the firm, Reuters reports. He reportedly is going to start his own investment company focusing on high-yield bonds. He had managed the Janus High-Yield Fund and the Janus Short-Term Bond Fund. Combined, the funds have $1.5 billion in assets.

It appears 401(k) participants want plan sponsors to be better matchmakers, as research shows doubling a 401(k) match increases employee contributions.

The good news is Americans are living longer. The bad news is they will likely outlive their retirement savings without better planning. Results from the MetLife Reitrement IQ test show workers are significantly underestimating their longevity and how much they will need to save to last them throughout their golden years.

Because they offer personalization and advice, separate accounts will lure a good portion of the trillions of dollars sitting on the sidelines back into the equities market, a report from TowerGroup predicts.

State Street, the giant mutual fund custodian, will take a $196 million restructuring charge in the second quarter to cover the voluntary buyout of 3,100 of its employees, Reuters reports.