United Asset Management Corp. (UAM) is in talks to sell its Pilgrim Baxter & Associates, Ltd. subsidiary to Nationwide Financial Services, Inc. UAM, of Boston, would only confirm that talks were being held. A Pilgrim Baxter spokesman declined to comment.

The Chase Manhattan Corp. has acquired Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter & Co.'s global custody business with the purchase of Morgan Stanley Trust Co. and Morgan Stanley Bank Luxembourg, S.A. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the businesses will be integrated into Chase's Global Investor Services unit. The combined entities will hold more than $5 trillion in assets under trust and custody and provide services to 3,000 institutional investors.

On the brink of closing the five no-load, fixed-income funds it oversees, the board of directors of the Fundamental Funds named Cornerstone Equity Advisors, a two-year old investment advisory firm, to assume management of the funds.

Friedman Billings Ramsey Group, Inc., has completed its acquisition of Grandview Advisers, Inc., which managed the Grandview Realty Growth Fund.

The Cardinal Funds have been merged into the Fountain Square Funds, which are advised by Fifth Third Bank. The Cardinal Funds were run by The Ohio Co., which Fifth Third recently acquired.