Special Program Root Tag

Franklin Templeton Investments has named Jim Baio the new financial chief of Franklin Resources and Jennifer Bolt the new chief information officer. Both have also been named senior vice presidents with the firm. The moves were effective May 15.

Mutual funds are facing their greatest challenges in their existence. Can they remain the dominant investment of choice?

Many mutual fund companies are happy just to have survived a brutal bear market that has obliterated more than $1 trillion in industry assets. Some fund complexes, though, have managed not only to survive but to grow assets and capture new market share.

While high-net-worth individuals with $1 million or more in investable assets are highly prized, cultivating relationships with these trophy investors presents formidable challenges to marketers.

With the market in the gutter for three years now, scores of private bankers, fund companies and other asset managers are trying to figure out ways to cater to changes in the behavior of their affluent clients. Their pursuit of the wealthy, who, worldwide, have $26.2 trillion at their disposal (see MFMN 7/1/02) and provide one of the only growth areas, makes perfect sense.

Given the choice between two funds run by two money managers, 40-year-old Jennifer and 40-year-old Michael, both with an MBA degree and four years of experience in fund managing, who would most investors entrust their money to? Michael, more likely. Why? Simply because he's a man.

Dublin and Luxembourg are currently the two leading domiciles for funds in Europe, much as Delaware is in the U.S. They offer incredibly favorable tax rates, prestige, experience, geographic location and a skilled, English-speaking labor force. But many believe cheaper labor costs and equally favorable taxation could allow another country to gain prominence in the field.

The mutual fund industry set its passionate sights on the European market in the 1990s, and a rash of acquisitions ensued.

BERMUDA - The expected global growth of mutual funds, particularly in Europe, has not materialized, and growth is being driven by conservative investments, said speakers at the Globalization of Mutual Funds conference here earlier this month.

Firms are finding that corporate 529s, company-based college-savings funds, offer a recruiting tool for the prospective employee who has everything. They're proving a boon for advisers, too.

What better pairing than two individuals who like to stir things up? Outspoken industry pundit Roy Weitz, publisher of FundAlarm.com, recently weighed in on some of the pressures facing the mutual fund industry with Jack Bogle, founder and former chairman of Vanguard and a notoriously outspoken defender of the investor.

When it was adopted by Congress, "catch-up" seemed like a surefire attraction for older workers.

Chief financial officers believe that merger and acquisition activity among life insurers is on its way up, according to a report from Tillinghast-Towers Perrin. Such activity has trended downward as formerly hungry acquirers lost their appetites during the bear market.

There were merger talks earlier this year between FleetBoston Financial Corp. and John Hancock Financial Services, according to the Associated Press. However, the talks were called off, as each side reportedly feared a hostile takeover.

AIM Management Group’s separately managed account subsidiary, AIM Private Asset Management, has reached an agreement with FundQuest to sell two of its platforms.

According to Reuters, Fidelity Investments faces a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange to see if employees in the brokerage unit have broken securities laws.

The House of Representatives Wednesday passed a bill that would allow 401(k) plan administrators to also offer investment advice, The New York Times reports. The bill would also allow employees who hold company stock in a 401(k) plan after three years.

A recently released survey is showing the large majority of U.S. investors as being optimistic about the stock market’s long-term investment opportunities.

Plan sponsors continue to expand the number of investment options available through their retirement plans, but a new study shows that too much choice adversely affects plan participation.

WASHINGTON – The Securities and Exchange Commission hearings on hedge funds here yesterday focused on suitability, the definition of hedge funds and whether a regulation crackdown is needed.