Investment funds

The naming of Sam Peters to run Bill Miller's $4.2 billion fund is seen as yet another step in the eventual successor plan.

BOSTON -- The staggering growth of UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) throughout Europe, Asia and Latin America has led to a proliferation of new investment products and trading opportunities, but restrictive investment mandates and tax requirements in the U.S. are causing some U.S. investors to feel left out of the game.

Waddell Mutual Fund Among First Flash Crash Trades

Legg Mason has named Sam Peters, 40, co-manager of Bill Miller’s $4.2 billion Value Trust fund, a move widely seen as selecting Peters to be the eventual replacement for Miller as chairman and CEO of the firm.

BOSTON -- As finance ministers in Europe consider proposed rules to toughen the regulation and oversight of alternative-investment funds, hedge fund and private-equity fund lobbyists are hoping members of the European Parliament are still open to compromise.

Money Management Executive, a SourceMedia publication for executives in the asset management industry, today announced the winners of the 8th Annual 2010 Fund Operations Awards. The awards were presented during the National Investment Company Service Association’s General Membership Meeting in Boston.

The average 401(k) plan balance at the end of the first quarter was up 40% from the year-earlier period, according to Fidelity highlights from its first quarter 2010 401(k) figures.

The SEC, FINRA and national securities exchanges are proposing individual circuit-breakers for every stock available in the U.S. They would set in if a security price moves 10% or more in a five-minute period.

Peter Adamson, 47, a well-regarded money manager who pioneered the use of hedge funds in the 1980s, family office investments in the 1990s and currently serves as billionaire Eli Broad’s chief investment officer, has landed a job with the family office Oprah Winfrey is setting up to manage her billions. Adamson is reportedly Winfrey's first hire and is seen as a coup for the media mogul, worth an estimated $2.4 billion.

"I've been everywhere and seen everything and done everything...sophisticated, God, I'm sophisticated." -- Daisy Buchanan, The Great Gatsby

If nothing else, the last two years have taught affluent investors and financial professionals that change is often unexpected, swift and brutal. But despite taking severe double-digit losses on their portfolios, affluent investors surveyed recently by HSBC still largely have the same portfolio allocations they did at the onset of the financial crisis in 2008.

New distribution momentum in bank brokerages and other intermediary channels is a source of good news for T. Rowe, which has been successfully rebuilding its assets under management while it expands its presence overseas.

Putnam Investments will reveal all of the fees in the defined contribution plans it manages through a new sponsor website that launches next month.

A Fidelity Investments poll of broker/dealers and RIA firms found 86% intend to accelerate firm growth and profitability this year by hiring more advisers and brokers, in addition to building new and existing client relationships. Only 2% say eliminating or cutting non-essential costs will be the biggest driver of profitability this year, compared to 27% in 2009.

State Street Global Advisors and Nuveen Investments launched an exchange-traded fund tracking Build America Bonds Thursday, as investment vehicles devoted to taxable municipal debt continue to proliferate.

FINRA Eyes Action Against Firms Selling Municipal Bonds

Municipal bond mutual funds continued to garner cash last week despite the flight from risk that has driven most of the flows this month.

It wasn’t a hedge fund, a proprietary trading desk at an investment bank or a rogue trader that may have been the key trigger behind the “flash crash,” one-thousand-point drop in the Dow.

GE Funding Capital Market Services Inc., a subsidiary of General Electric Capital Corp., does not agree with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to file charges against it in connection with an industry-wide investigation of guaranteed investment contracts and derivatives, but is discussing the matter, including a “potential resolution,” with SEC staff.

Money market mutual funds ended their 18-week losing streak as investors sought the safety of cash in increasingly volatile markets. Total money fund assets rose by $24.23 billion to $2.878 trillion for the week ending May 12, according to the Investment Company Institute.