Special Program Root Tag

Janus Capital has named Girard Miller as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Miller was previously president and CEO of ICMA Retirement Corp., a company that manages retirement plans for state and local governments. ICMA has since named Joan McAllen, executive vice president and COO, as acting CEO. A permanent successor is to be named soon.

PPM America, which provides investment services to Prudential affiliates and clients, has hired Anthony Balestrieri as senior managing director and portfolio manager in the firm's public fixed-income and portfolio management group.

JPMorgan Treasury Services has appointed Steve Groppi to the position of Europe, Middle East and Africa regional executive. In addition to the new role, Groppi will maintain his position as regional executive for the Asia Pacific region.

Despite a seeming endorsement from the Investment Company Institute, many in the mutual fund industry say the Mutual Funds Integrity and Fee Transparency Act of 2003, proposed by House Capital Markets Subcommittee Chairman Richard H. Baker (R-LA), is still severely lacking and way off the mark in many areas.

Nationwide Financial of Columbus, Ohio, has rolled out a new program that allows registered investment advisers (RIAs) and certified public accountants (CPAs) to sell its retirement plans for a fee rather than a commission, making it the first major 401(k) provider to do so. Others are likely to follow as the entire financial services industry moves towards fee-based business.

Integrity Mutual Funds announced Monday that it has inked a deal with Williamette Asset Managers to acquire management rights to its four equity mutual funds.

The global sell-off of bonds extended into the Asian markets on Friday in reaction to the smaller-than expected 25 basis point interest rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve earlier this week, according to Reuters.

Stock fund assets grew in May and money market fund continued to suffer outflows as the mutual fund industry’s assets increased by 3.4%, according to the industry trade group the Investment Company Institute.

Richard A. Marin has been named the new chairman of Bear Stearns Asset Management, a subsidiary of The Bear Stearns Companies.

Companies with defined-benefit pension plans for their workers and retirees may be required to disclose information about their plan’s impact on earnings much more frequently, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal.

Wednesday’s interest rate cut to 1% may punish investors in money market mutual funds, whose average yields are expected to plummet to 44 basis points, the Los Angeles Times reports. Just before the cut, the average yield was 64 basis points.

How much money will you need in retirement? Few people really know, according to a survey by the MetLife Mature Market Institute.

The initiative to create a model regulation governing the sale of fixed and variable annuities to seniors will come to life after the fall meeting in Chicago of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Women are far more conservative when it comes to investing, according to Charles Schwab’s first quarter 2003 self-directed brokerage account (SDBA) report. Looking at SDBAs and 401(k) plans, the report includes gender-specific data for the first time.

Many investors opted for the sidelines during the downturn in the stock market, but black investors sat out more their white investors, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

The National Association of Securities Dealers censured and fined McLaughlin, Piven, Vogel Securities and its chairman, James C. McLaughlin, $100,000 for unsuitable sales of B shares. Saying that A shares would have been more appropriate, NASD also ordered the firm to return $90,000 to investors.

Financial services company State Street Corp. announced Wednesday it will sell its asset management business to Charles Schwab’s U.S Trust unit for $365 million.

The longtime rivalry between Info-One/VARDS and AnnuityNet will soon be a thing of the past. AnnuityNet and Wachovia Insurance Agency, which owns Info-One/VARDS, will soon be merged.

The Principal Financial Group announced Wednesday that its subsidiary, Principal Financial Group Ltd., has reached an agreement with the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) to purchase IDBI’s 50% stake in IDBI-Principal Asset Management Co. Ltd. for an estimated $20 million. Through this agreement, Principal will now have a 100% stake in IDBI..

First Clearing, a trade execution and clearing firm, has recently announced Diversified Managed Allocations (DMA), which is a multiple manager separate account management program. It will be available to all of its clearing correspondent clients.