Special Program Root Tag

The mutual fund sub-advisory business has become more than just the icing on the cake for pure-play asset managers; it is evolving into their bread and butter and their ability to garner - and keep - relationships is the key to remaining viable.

The Northern Trust Company announced that Robert A. Meier has been named president of Northern Trust Bank-Georgia, overseeing the company's new office in Atlanta. He reports to William L. Morrison, Northern Trust's president of personal financial services.

Wells Real Estate Funds announced today that Parker Hudson has joined the company as vice president, dispositions. In this role, Hudson will recommend and implement disposition strategies and establish strategic objectives for the Wells property portfolio in accordance with corporate goals.

AIM Investments announced today that Timothy P. Beyer has been named portfolio manager for AIM Mid-Cap Basic Value Fund. Beyer joins AIM Investments from USAA Investment Management, where he managed its value fund since inception in 2001. He also managed its balanced fund since late 2000.

As of the start of May, the management team for AIM Premier Equity Fund and AIM Premier Equity II Fund will be composed of Robert A. Shelton, Abel Garcia, Meggan W. Walsh, Michael Yellen and Kellie K. Veazey. Shelton will replace Evan G. Harrel as lead manager for the fund.

Over 90% of broker-dealers are planning on hiring retail brokers within the coming year, and none are in a complete hiring freeze, according to a study by BrokerHunter.com. Analysts, on the other hand, are much less in demand, with only 5.6% of firms hiring and less than a quarter looking to add sales assistants.

The Financial Communications Society has announced the finalists for its annual best advertising contest and many of the candidates are mutual fund companies.

Equity index annuities (EIA) are complex and hard to explain, but investors may respond to one thing: these products have outperformed between 63% and 75% of mutual funds, according to a report from the Advantage Group. The analysis compares indexes of five different types of EIAs to performance data from Morningstar and Lipper for 2344 mutual funds. EIAs do not reinvest dividends, whereas mutual funds do.

Junk bonds' strong rebound stimulates the junk bond fund sector, which brought in $1.1 billion in the week ended April 30, according to AMG Data Services. That marks the 10th week in a row of net inflows, Reuters reports. A declining default rate has helped junk bonds' rally since last October. Total inflows into the junk bond mutual fund sector this year has amounted to almost $14.7 billion.

Despite 1.6 million new accounts and a growth rate of 119% in assets in 529 college savings plans in 2002, providers have been disappointed at the individual plan size, according to a recent report by Cerulli Associates of Boston.

Strong Financial Corporation of Menomonee, Wis., has debuted a comprehensive interactive voice response system (IVR) dubbed Strong Direct, which was built by Nuance of Menlo Park, Calif. Strong says that it is among the first to adopt the upgraded Nuance 8 system. Nuance also is the force behind the speech recognition system of financial services provider Charles Schwab of San Francisco.

Assets in exchange-traded funds grew 8.6% in March, the Investment Company Institute said.

Franklin Resources, Janus Capital and T. Rowe Price all got neutral ratings from UBS Warburg analyst Glenn Schorr, as he began covering the investment management sector, The Wall Street Journal reports. Schorr gave the overall sector a neutral rating, as well.

Investors may defer taxation of reinvested mutual fund capital gains dividends until the fund is sold, if a bill introduced Tuesday in the House of Representatives were to become law, Dow Jones reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced speakers for next Wednesday’s hearings on hedge funds.

Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, has made some executive moves to get in line with proposed corporate governance rules, Reuters reports.

Broker-dealers and other financial services companies have upped the ante on customer service, and now the insurance industry must follow suit if it intends to remain competitive, according to Michael Keeler, SVP and director of individual life operations at The Hartford. In an address at the LOMA Policyholder Service Seminar in Orlando, Fla., Keeler explained that his company remains committed to improving service despite financial pressures.

Investors may defer taxation of reinvested mutual fund capital gains until the fund is sold, if House legislation becomes law, Dow Jones reports.

The Stanton Group and LOMA have teamed up to conduct a new survey that tracks compensation of portfolio managers according to fund performance and size. Results are expected to be published in September, and are intended to help fund companies pay portfolio managers on a more consistent basis.

Individual mutual fund shareholders are likely to be left out in the cold when it comes to compensation for losses they suffered on stocks analysts pumped during the raging bull market, the Associated Press reports.