Investments

A pair of senior executives of the U.S. asset management business of Julius Baer, the Swiss wealth business, earned compensation packages worth $120 million in the first nine months of 2007, according to a regulatory filing ahead of the unit's flotation planned for this year.

U.S. money manager Legg Mason denied market rumors this week that one of its money market funds had fallen to below $1 in net asset value, commonly known as "breaking the buck."

Morgan Stanley is eliminating 1,000 jobs as it scales back its residential mortgage operations in the U.S. and closes operations in the U.K., Reuters reports, citing Morgan Stanley information. More than 100 other mortgage lenders have cut jobs in the last year as the housing crisis worsens.

Swiss private bank Julius Baer Holdings on Tuesday said it is preparing an initial public offering for sometime this year for its U.S.-based mutual funds unit.

Prudential Retirement announced today that it has entered into an external partner distribution agreement with The Newport Group to offer Prudential IncomeFlex, Prudential’s 401(k) retirement income solution. Under the terms of the agreement, Newport, a leading retirement services and investment advisory firm, will provide fully integrated access to IncomeFlex to its new and existing clients.

On Monday, Fidelity Investments announced total brokerage client assets had reached a record $1.99 trillion in the fourth quarter, a 17% increase from a year ago.

A record 15,594 new equity trade ideas were entered into the Repository and Distribution Centre in January 2008, up 152% from 6,191 ideas entered last January.

Japan Looks to Overhaul Financial Regulations

Kenyon Switches From Goodwin to Dechert

A Meeting of the Minds: Retirement Income Roundtable At SourceMedia New York Headquarters on Jan. 28, 2008

Delegating key business operations to third-party providers such as custodians, administrators, distributors and transfer agents is certainly not new to asset managers. It is a traditional investment management business model which has been refined over the years with increasing third-party interaction.

Shortly before the Apollo 13 moon mission was to launch, the command module pilot, Ken Mattingly, was exposed to the German measles and pulled from the flight crew.

MIAMI-The best way to shape the back office's response to the Merrill Lynch Rule was addressed in a presentation last month by Dr. Stephen Winks at the National Investment Company Service Association's 7th Annual Managed Accounts Technology and Operations Conference, recently held here at the Doral Golf Resort and Spa. And it's all about becoming as nimble as the front office.

Ramifications from the Pension Protection Act's effect on investor inertia, changes to Rule 12b-1's regulation of expenses and a possible mandate by the Securities and Exchange Commission on independent directors are among the top concerns of the mutual fund industry's top executives.

Seeing how the biggest story of 2007 was the subprime crisis, which only a few canny hedge fund managers foresaw, let's take a look ahead to potential news headlines for 2008. Who knows, we might even be as canny as the best of them.

The huge burden of meeting new Internal Revenue Service retirement plan regulations just got a lot easier.

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards has raised the ethical standard guidelines for the 55,000 planners in the nation with CFP credentials, in order for investors to get better help in selecting among increasingly complex financial choices.

The Investment Company Institute said last week that mutual fund assets worldwide increased 6.2 percent to $25.82 trillion at the end of the third quarter of 2007. Asset growth was boosted in part by the participation in the data collection of an additional country.

Investors dramatically cut the amount of new money they put into hedge funds, Reuters said.

The F&C Enhanced Alpha UK Equity Fund, one of the first so-called 130/30 funds to focus on UK equities, has reported its sixth consecutive month of beating the market since it was launched in August last year.