Global investing

LAS VEGAS - Unified managed accounts (UMAs) are quickly becoming a popular and viable option for Baby Boomers looking for more diversification in retirement, but the plans still have a lot of work to do in order to overcome certain hang-ups.

The Federal Reserve has moved to ease bank ownership thresholds, allowing private equity firms to acquire larger-sized stakes in banking companies along with board representation.

Sallie Krawcheck, the chief executive officer and chairman of Citi Global Wealth Management, is set to leave the firm, according to a statement from Citigroup, the parent company.

Over the next several months, Curian Capital plans to hire 21 additional salespeople: 10 external wholesalers, 10 internal wholesalers and a divisional vice president overseeing them. “The expansion of our sales team will allow us to keep pace with the number of new advisory relationships that Curian has entered into this year, and support the robust growth of the managed accounts industry as a whole,” said Michael Bell, president and chief executive officer of Curian. “We are seeing an increased demand for dedicated business consulting and practice management support, particularly as more financial professionals transition to advisory business,” Bell continued. “We will continue to expand our distribution force in order to satisfy these demands and maintain a high level of personal service for our business partners.”

Taking dead-aim at Middle America, Allstate Corp. has added guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits to its target funds.

The unified managed account (UMA) market’s rapid growth will not continue without greater standardization and automation, says a Dover Financial Research report issued Wednesday and commissioned by Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC).

Evergreen Investments of Boston, Wachovia Corp.'s asset management arm, announced Sept. 4 that it has closed its family of fund of funds.

Pioneer Investments has selected Brian E. Stack as manager of the Pioneer Growth Opportunities Fund. A 21-year veteran of the mutual fund industry, Stack has specialized in small- and mid-cap growth.

England's Financial Services Authority has found no evidence of a "concerted attempt by individuals" to alter share prices in Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) during the raid of its shares earlier this year, according to the Mondaq Business Briefing.HBOS' shares fell by 17% in 20 minutes on March 19 after someone spread false rumors that the bank had asked the Bank of England for an emergency loan. The panic came just days after the collapse of Bear Stearns in the U.S.Many officials suspect that hedge funds may have played a large role both incidents, though regulators have not been able to pin the blame on anyone yet.After four months of investigating, the FSA found no evidence of abuse. The agency stated that it would continue to watch for rumor-mongering "at a high level of intensity," and will take action if any evidence is found.The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

The chairman of Credit Suisse Group's alternative investments business said that his unit plans an international expansion for the recently acquired Asset Management Finance Corp., using joint ventures to enter new regions and sectors.Chairman Brian Finn said that by early next year Credit Suisse needs to put some Asset Management Finance executives internationally in cities like London or Zurich and eventually in Asia, possibly in Singapore or Hong Kong.He discussed the plans in an interview last week, after the Zurich firm bought 80% of the New York investment manager from National Bank Financial of Canada for $384 million of stock.Finn said that he hopes to have some international customers for Asset Management Finance by late next year."We think that there is a big global opportunity," Finn said. "We have developed a lot of joint ventures in Latin America, China, and the Middle East, but as a general matter as we look at investment managers in the U.S., we think the next few deals will be in more-developed markets."

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has widened its ongoing auction rate securities (ARS) probe with a sweep letter aimed primarily at sellers, rather than lead managers, of the illiquid instruments.The six-page letter, sent last week to 40 broker-dealers, contains a laundry list of requests covering the period from June 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Firms must produce all documents, electronic or otherwise, indicating any arrangement with other parties, including ARS issuers and auction agents, to sell, remarket or solicit bids for the securities.“It appears that FINRA is interested in doing a thorough investigation, given the depth and breadth of the request,” said Brian Rubin, Washington, D.C.-based partner in law firm Sutherland Asbill & Brennan and former deputy chief counsel of enforcement at FINRA predecessor NASD.State regulators and the Securities and Exchange Commission have thus far pursued charges against firms -- including Citigroup, UBS Financial Services, Merrill Lynch & Co., Goldman Sachs Group and Deutsche Bank -- that have been lead underwriters as well as sellers of the securities.“Now, it appears that FINRA is looking at selling firms,” Rubin said.FINRA spokesperson Herb Perone would not comment on the letter except to say how many firms received it.Allegations against lead managers have focused on internal communications detailing problems with the auction rate securities market that were not disclosed when the products were sold.With the new sweep letter, according to Rubin, FINRA appears to be investigating whether the selling brokers obtained information from the lead managers that they failed to disclose to clients. The self-regulatory organization is also looking at basic sales practices including whether the securities were suitable investments, misrepresentations were made and advertising was fair and balanced.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a 60-day public comment period to see whether the U.S. should adopt international reporting standards.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is reportedly looking into whether Fidelity Investments might have been motivated to sell Goldman Sachs' underwritten auction-rate securities due to a pre-existing business relationship.

Citigroup plans to revamp its capital markets business under its investment-banking arm.

The chairman of South Korea's Financial Services Commission, Jun Kwang-woo, spoke out Monday about last week's reports that state-controlled Korea Development Bank was possibly interested in buying Lehman Brothers.

Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.That, essentially, is the message from Vanguard Chairman John Brennan to the Securities and Exchange Commission, in response to the SEC’s plan to change a rule governing money market funds - making Vanguard the first major mutual fund company to protest the proposed change.In response to the subprime crisis, and the apparent failure of ratings agencies to properly grade the securities, the SEC is proposing shifting the responsibility for assessing short-term debt from Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, to squarely on the shoulders of asset management firms.That would be a mistake, Brennan argues, that could harm investors in the $3.5 trillion money market mutual fund industry.“It is our view that the proposed elimination of ratings would remove an important investor protection from Rule 2-a7, weaken investment standards and, potentially, pose a risk to the long history of stability of the $3.5 trillion money market fund industry,” Brennan wrote in a letter to the SEC.“Ratings, even if occasionally imperfect, protect investors by establishing a uniform, minimum credit quality for all money market funds. Removing that investor protection is akin to outlawing seat belts.”

Rather than acquire or invest only in companies seen as turnarounds, private equity firms are increasingly attracted to the strength and high-net-worth retail customer base of asset management firms, a category they traditionally have sidestepped, Dow Jones reports.As Miguel Sagarna, a partner in the private equity group at KPMG, put it, “It’s a very scalable business, and it is a good quality product, it can grow fast with good margins.”And with so many banks and asset management firms looking to raise capital by selectively selling off divisions, private equity firms are seeing this as a great opportunity to take advantage of good prices. Some are even planning to build broad financial services operations, said William Kirsch, chairman of the private equity group at Paul Hastings.Certainly, private equity firms are looking to diversify their holdings, Sagarna agreed.However, since most private equity firms closely guard their business, it is likely they will run any asset management firms they acquire alongside their business, experts said. That does not mean that they may not still share information and research, Kirsch said.Asset management firms might even help private equity shops develop new products, added Adam Schneider, a principal at Deloitte.

West Virginia and Nebraska offer the best 529 college savings plans, according to a ranking by SavingforCollege.com, a unit of Bankrate Inc., set to be released Friday.

Investors are interested in going green with their portfolio, but advisers are failing to even suggest investing in it, according to a Roper Center poll.

Many alternative asset managers, who brag about their ability to make money regardless of market conditions, posted their worst figures in years last month after worldwide sentiment suddenly changed on energy prices, financial stock and the U.S. dollar.