Mutual funds

The Charles Schwab Corporation has agreed to buy ThomasPartners, a dividend income-focused asset management firm with $2.3 billion in assets, for $85 million in cash and additional payments contingent on future growth in assets.

'Tis the season when the leaves change, the National Football League is kicking its season into second gear, the Yankees are once again chasing another championship, and...yes, there's another mutual fund conference to attend.

FlexShares, the exchange-traded funds arm of Northern Trust Corp., launched its first actively managed ETF, the FlexShares Ready Access Variable Income Fund (RAVI), a money market ETF that will invest in global short-duration, investment-grade fixed-income products, including U.S. Treasuries.

Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007, the convergence between traditional and alternative products has been widely discussed, with ramifications expected to affect the industry in a significant fashion.

'Tis the season when the leaves change, the National Football League is kicking its season into second gear, the Yankees are once again chasing another championship, and...yes, there's another mutual fund conference to attend.

Curian, Putnam Investments and the John Hancock Funds have won top honors in the 10th Annual NOVA Awards, which honor outstanding leadership and achievement in mutual fund operations and marketing.

ClearBridge Advisors the largest manager of equity funds at parent company Legg Mason, apparently wants to cut the apron strings, announcing it would drop the “Legg Mason” name from all its U.S. funds over the next few months.

Asset managers spend more than 80 percent of their technology dollars simply maintaining existing operations. With regulatory changes and trading spanning more types of assets, “the buy side has a situation of underinvestment which is unsustainable,’’ research firm Celent said.

Bruce Bent Sr. took the stand Thursday afternoon in a New York City courtroom, defending his actions during the 2008 financial crisis as his $62 billion Reserve Primary Fund—the world’s first money market mutual fund—imploded after making an unfortunate bet on the debt of Lehman Brothers Holdings, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Lord, Abbett & Co. has added nine new partners to its executive team.

Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $1.38 billion to $2.562 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

John Hancock Funds has unveiled a new 'Insights & Commentary' section on its website featuring commentary and thought leadership on topics ranging from alternative asset classes to the Eurozone debt crisis.

The Investment Company Institute has named former journalist Mike McNamee its chief public communications officer, responsible for all media and public relations, public policy writing, editorial, website, and design activities.

Old Mutual Asset Management, the US-based global asset management business of Old Mutual plc, has agreed to sell five of its US affiliates to their current senior management teams.

Total money market mutual fund assets decreased by $1.38 billion to $2.562 trillion for the week ended Wednesday, October 10, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Investors in U.S. mutual funds pulled money out of U.S. equity funds for the 17th consecutive month as they continued to seek the perceived safety of fixed income funds and other non-equity plays, according Morningstar.

Miami-based investment advisor Thomas J. Herzfeld Advisors has hired asset management and mutual fund industry veteran, Robert Adler as its head of distribution, a newly created position.

This year, investors are flocking to the fixed income market in droves as evidenced by weekly updates from the Lipper, which revealed that investors withdrew $2.4 billion from equity funds for the week ended Oct. 4 in search of a safe haven.

Northern Trust has promoted Darius Gill to managing director of the Foundation & Institutional Advisors group in the Central Region, which includes Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Rising interest in hedge fund-like mutual funds among advisors and investors have driven service providers and fund managers alike to adjust their businesses to account for legal and tax ramifications of serving and operating alternative mutual funds.