Investment News back issues from December 2001:
Fund giants open front in portal war with Janus: Fidelity Putnam, Franklin team up to challenge Vision.
Dec 03, 2001; ... Three of the mutual fund industry's biggest players -- and fierce rivals on many fronts -- have joined forces to form an Internet portal aimed primarily at independent broker-dealers. Fidelity Investments, Putnam Investments and Franklin Resources Inc. are mounting a major ...
Birth of a (virtual) salesman: Wholesalers hit web to get foot in the door.
Dec 03, 2001; ... The 21st century mutual fund wholesaler is starting to look kind of like a 1980s-style Max Headroom. They're called virtual wholesalers, but they're more than just a talking head on a computer screen. From the home office, the wholesalers meet with brokers and ...
Hands off customer accounts!: State regulators halt controversial practice.
Dec 03, 2001; ... Under pressure from state regulators, at least six major brokerage houses have agreed to stop a controversial practice of seeking court orders to prevent customers from following brokers who jump ship. The North American Securities Administrators Association in Washington issued ...
Two trade groups seeking relief. (At the Bell).
Dec 03, 2001 ... The associations representing Wall Street and the mutual fund industry Friday issued pleas to Congress for financial relief. The Securities Industry Association called on Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to move legislation that would reduce ...
Evergreen adding separates offerings. (At the Bell).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Evergreen Investments will announce plans this week to expand its separate-accounts program, first to its in-house broker-dealers and bank representatives and then outside the company, says Andrew Clipper, Evergreen's new director of retail separate accounts. Mr. Clipper, 44, ...
Banking chairman warns insurers. (At the Bell).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, warned tongue-in-cheek last week that the insurance industry had better be careful what it wishes for because it just may get it. Speaking at a Consumer Federation of America conference in Washington, Mr. Sarbanes ...
Bridgeway closes a mid-cap fund. (At the Bell).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Bridgeway Capital Management Inc. of Houston has closed its Bridgeway Aggressive Investors I fund to new investors, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund has shown a decline of 21.2% through October compared with 30.47% for the average ...
Mutual fund assets climbed in October. (At the Bell).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Assets of the nation's mutual funds climbed 3% in October, according to the Investment Company Institute in Washington. The total ...
Planner board set to reexamine rules. (At the Bell).
Dec 03, 2001 ... The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc.'s disclosure task force will meet today to discuss feedback on a draft of proposed changes to rules and terminology about disclosure in the board's Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility. The task force will draw ...
Advisers fell short after towers toppled. (Monday Morning Insights & Analysis).
Dec 03, 2001; ... The world turned upside down when the twin towers at the World Trade Center-fell Sept. 11. But for the vast majority of individuals who call themselves financial advisers, the calamity wasn't enough of a motivation to telephone their clients. So says a recent report ...
Wells' hedge funds to report daily. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
Dec 03, 2001; ... One group of financial advisers is pushing new hedge "funds of funds" with a twist: They promise to report performance daily rather than each month or quarter says Timothy J. Leach, chief investment officer in San Francisco with Wells Fargo Private Asset Management. Hedge ...
Fun with funds. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
Dec 03, 2001; ... Mutual Mania has hit the street. Have F.U.N. (Financial Understanding Now)! Competitive Edge Enterprises Inc. in Guelph, Ontario, is getting rave reviews for Mutual Mania, a board game designed for ages 11 and up that takes players through adventures in money management. The game can be ...
Revival meeting for tech investors. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
Dec 03, 2001; ... It was like the heady days of 18 months ago. Salomon Smith Barney Inc. invited a standing-room-only crowd of its retail investors to a symposium to renew interest in technology stocks. It was held in the New Economy atmosphere of Sony Entertainment Center, a block south of San Francisco's ...
A Prague Spring on Wall Street? Market blossoms, but fundamentals could crush rebound.
Dec 03, 2001; ... For whatever reasons -- all unrelated to fundamentals -- the equity markets have been acting as if happy days are here again. The major indexes, while still down from the start of the year, have shown impressive gains since hitting lows Sept. 21. But opinions are ...
Texan faces his Alamo in bid to revive funds: Rep for gold holdings sinks US. Global stock.
Dec 03, 2001; ... Frank E. Holmes bought a troubled mutual fund company with assets of $650 million in 1989 and increased its assets to $1.5 billion by its high-tide mark in 1998. Now, it's troubled again. The major shareholder and CEO of U.S. Global Investors Inc. (GROW) is facing ...
Gerber's billion-dollar baby: Trying to out-Buffett Warren is his goal.
Dec 03, 2001; ... On a quiet, suburban street in Moraga, Calif., it's raining a sets at about $5 million per day a Nicholas D. Gerber's house. Early in November, the Ameristock Mutual Fund, which Mr. Gerber, 39, founded and runs from home, topped $1 billion in assets for the first time, up from ...
Banks see red as Enron goes code blue. (Reverse Spin).
Dec 03, 2001; ... The collapse of Enron Corp. last week sent shudders through the market and is causing investors to see red -- both literally and figuratively. Asked about her exposure to the stock, one money manager told InvestmentNews, "With nearly a billion shares outstanding, every money manager has ...
Making if official. (Reverse Spin).
Dec 03, 2001; ... What a week for investors. With the markets rallying over the past two months, the bad news from Enron came on the heels of Monday's declaration by a panel of top economists that the U.S. economy had been in a recession since ...
Spear Leeds hit with $1 million fine. (Reverse Spin).
Dec 03, 2001; ... On Wall Street, the American Stock Exchange hit a top firm with the largest fine in the history of the exchange. The Amex fined market specialist Spear Leeds & Kellogg $1 million. The unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. failed to supervise one of its traders, Pasquale Schettino, ...
U.S. attorney clears Credit Suisse unit. (Reverse Spin).
Dec 03, 2001; ... The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said it would not criminally charge Credit Suisse First Boston for its role in bringing hot technology stocks to market in the dot-com ...
Insurers win a terrorism vote. (Reverse Spin).
Dec 03, 2001; ... A study sought by the life insurance industry on the potential effects of terrorist acts on the life insurance industry would be conducted under legislation passed Thursday, 227-193, by the House of Representatives. The House included the provision in its bill to provide backing for ...
Welch U. grads are hot: Former GE executives successful as CEOs elsewhere.
Dec 03, 2001; ... Here's one retirement hobby that Jack Welch should consider now that he has left the helm of General Electric Co.: Run a mutual fund populated by the stocks of companies that are now led by his management proteges from GE. At least 16 former Welch underlings now head publicly ...
Drop in hidden trading costs is no boon: Fund holders are not likely to benefit.
Dec 03, 2001; ... The hidden costs associated with trading stocks have come down over the last year, but that may mean very little to mutual fund investors. The question is whether investment companies can't pursue those savings and pass them along to investors or because they won't. ...
Doing good, doing well in social investing: Assets in funds climb more than a third in two years.
Dec 03, 2001; ... Do-good money managers are doing pretty well when it comes to gathering assets from workplace plans and from wealthy investors. That's a key finding in the Social Investment Forum's 2001 report on social investing trends. The report concludes that assets screened for such ...
Big tech-savvy companies muscling out indie planners: Key is collaboration among the experts.
Dec 03, 2001; ... Big financial services companies are using new technology to muscle into the territory of independent financial planners. The big companies are tapping into expertise using a variety of technology, from collecting client information over the Internet to holding conferences ...
First Union's brokerage feeling growth pains: Problems with old and new brokers costing money and reputation.
Dec 03, 2001; ... First Union Corp.'s rapid, acquisition-fueled growth has brought with it a host of problems for its brokerage unit that are costing the company both money and reputation. To make matters worse, the Charlotte, N.C., bank's problems are unfolding during turbulent times in the ...
Funds, advisers must close minority 'investment gap'. (Taking Sides Editorial).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Mutual fund shareholders are often thought to mirror Middle America, and in many ways they do. But a new survey by the Investment Company Institute shows some significant gaps between perception and reality that should concern the industry. Call it the investment gap. ...
Advent as adversary: A collusion course. (At Issue Correspondence).
Dec 03, 2001 ... I was amazed to think that an organization like Grain Communications was willing to us a word like "collusion" in its description of Advent [Software Inc.] and [Charles] Schwab [& Co. Inc.] ["Schwab, Advent secret deal smacks of market collusion," Nov. 19]. Thank goodness! I ...
A new measure for shareholders to test the value of acquisitions. (Other Views Ideas and Analysis).
Dec 03, 2001; ... Understanding what drives value-accretive deals - realizable synergies in excess of the control premium - is the first step in separating likely M&A winners from losers. I am going to propose a somewhat radical idea -- eliminating the term "goodwill" from our vocabulary when ...
Block's 'new kid' out to knock off the competition. (FastTrack).
Dec 03, 2001; ... Brian Nygaard gets a kick out of scaring the pants off his competitors in the advice business. The newly hired president and chief executive officer of H&R Block Financial Advisors Inc. says he's got just the projections to do it. In the next three to five years, the ...
A tax hawk for Babson's private clients. (Fast Track).
Dec 03, 2001; ... David L. Babson & Co. Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., manages a sizable amount of assets for institutions, but it has only recently started to build its private-client group. While the money management company is responsible for over $65 billion in assets, it manages only about $1.3 ...
Moving Up: Hirings & Promotions.
Dec 03, 2001 ... Villanova Capital Inc. in Conshohocken, Pa., and Gartmore Investment Management PLC in London, affiliates of Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Corp., have appointed Young D. Chin, 44 chief investment officer of the U.S. arm of their global investment platform. He was managing ...
Date Book: Events & Happenings.
Dec 03, 2001 ... DECEMBER 5-6 -- MarkeTrends: A Strategic Planning Offsite, Society of Strategic Planners and Marketing Professionals. The Colonnade, Boston. (508)945-3728 Ext. 10. 7 -- Worksite Marketing Forum: Strategies for Increasing Your Profitability, Life Insurance Selling ....
AmEx to add three funds to its palette of products. (Product Watch New Products, Services).
Dec 03, 2001 ... American Express Financial Corp., a unit of American Express Co., expects to launch three mutual funds in the first quarter of 2002 -- two domestic-equity-funds and a fixed-income fund. The AXP Mid Cap Value Fund will invest primarily in stocks of companies with capitalizations ...
Brinson offers tools for rich. (Product Watch New Products, Services).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Brinson Advisors, a member of UBS Asset Management in New York, has launched Private Wealth Solutions, a managed-account program that offers wealthy investors access to customized portfolios managed by UBS Management investment professionals. The new program will offer ...
Courses for advisers with rich clients. (Product Watch New Products, Services).
Dec 03, 2001 ... The private-wealth-management task force of the New York Society of Security Analysts has developed three courses for advisers with wealthy clients. The courses start Dec. 6. The first course is "Profitable Client Meetings," which covers topics such as how to present clients ...
Stein Roe upgrades website functions. (Product Watch New Products, Service).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Stein Roe Mutual Funds, a Chicago-based unit of Liberty Financial Cos. Inc., has redesigned its website, steinroe.com, to provide more portfolio management and account-tracking functions for shareholders. Shareholders will have more personalized information available when ...
TD Waterhouse adds Gcldman tools. (Product Watch New Products, Service).
Dec 03, 2001 ... TD Waterhouse Group Inc. in New York is now offering its U.S. customers and network of independent financial advisers real-time access to Goldman Sachs PrimeAccess, an integrated, research-driven tool from the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (Product watch New Products, Service) ...
BISYS website details (k) plans. (Product Watch new Products, Service).
Dec 03, 2001 ... BISYS in New York, a leading provider of retirement services, has launched a website to provide information about Individual (k) plans, a generic name used for the new retirement savings alternative for owner-only businesses. The individual (k) plan will become viable under ...
Morningstar adds to adviser plafform. (Product Watch New Products, Service).
Dec 03, 2001 ... Morningstar Inc. in Chicago has announced that Morningstar Advisor Workstation, an online investment planning platform for financial advisers, now includes information on nearly 20,000 variable--annuity/life subaccounts. Workstation features include: * Assessment ...
Broad global and international funds: Equity portfolios in a world of trouble.
Dec 03, 2001 ... <Pre> Broad global and international funds Equity portfolios in a world of trouble GLOBE FLEXIBLE PORTFOLIO %CHANGE YTD 1-year TOP 10 Permanent ...
Fund mixes quant savvy and seat of pants to beat the S&P. (Street Wise Commentary).
Dec 03, 2001; ... There are times when a conservative investment strategy is easy to justify. Steve Colton, co-portfolio manager of the phoenix-Oakhurst Growth & Income Fund (PDIAX), makes no apologies for his fund's 14.5% decline over the past 12 months. Mr. Colton's target is to ...
Investment Watch.
Dec 03, 2001 ... At a glance: H&R Block Inc. Fiscal 2001 revenues: $3 billion Fiscal 2001 earnings: $281.2 million 2000: $2.5 billion 2000: $251.9 million 52-week high: $41.59 52-week low: $16.91 P/e: 23.67 Price/book: 8.05 ...
"We'll often look to catch an inflection point ... when things are changing at a company.". (One on One).
Dec 03, 2001; ... Moving up through the management trainee ranks in the mid-1980s at McDonald's Corp., Julie A. O'Rourke was on course for a promising future when she suddenly ditched the program to return to college and finish getting an undergraduate degree. She never went back to the ...
Gains mesh with campaign $$$: Financial industry scores big in Washington after record contributions.
Dec 10, 2001; ... Hammered by poor markets and terrorist attacks, the financial services industry still managed this year to forge some of its most significant legislative gains in recent memory. No doubt the securities and insurance industries were helped by a record $130 million in political ...
For brokers, chilled still: Wall Street houses pressing curbs in contracts.
Dec 10, 2001; ... Brokerage houses are not giving up the fight to control a broker's book of business. While they are giving up filing temporary restraining orders to block client account transfers (InvestmentNews, Dec. 3), they can still put a deep chill on brokers who jump to a rival. ...
Goss' company in deal with Yahoo! (At the Bell).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * AdviceAmerica Inc., the company Robert Goss joined a little over a year ago after leaving as president of the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, is teaming up with Internet portal Yahoo! The alliance marks the first major deal for AdviceAmerica of Fremont, Calif., ...
Bill would keep banks from realty areas. (At the Bell).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * Legislation was introduced Thursday in the House that would ban big banks from getting into the real estate brokerage or property management businesses. A rule is pending at the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury that would let bank holding companies sell and ...
Vetting e-mail ads vexing to advisers: Internet pitches prompt guffaws and warnings.
Dec 10, 2001; ... Want to turn your client's individual retirement account from a Gremlin into a Corvette? With flashing pictures of the two cars -- circa early 1970s and late '90s, respectively -- Edwin Lichtig's e-mail advertisement says he knows a way to convert a traditional IRA into a Roth ...
Variable products drawing more heat. (At the Bell).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * More enforcement actions are likely to be made in the first quarter of 2002 for violations of regulations on the sale of variable products, Andrew Favret, New Orleans-based regional chief counsel for NASD Regulation Inc., said Friday. Mr. Favret addressed a conference on life ...
AmEx unit gets new research chief. (At the Bell).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * American Express Financial Advisors Inc., the money management unit of American Express Co., has named a new director of equity research - Tom Mahowald, who joined the unit in 1997 as an equity analyst. ...
Scudder dismissed by New York fund. (At the Bell).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * Zurich Scudder Investments Inc of New York has been dismissed as manager of $864.7 million of international stocks by the New York City Retirement Systems. The portfolio will be reassigned to other managers. ...
Clients in an FOF? Prepare for an SOS. (Monday Morning Insights & Analysis).
Dec 10, 2001; ... Disputing the simple beauty of the fund-of-hedge-funds concept is not easy. Skilled professionals neatly package the risky, unregulated and often complicated investments into a diversified portfolio so they can offer them to a wider market. Most hedge funds require ...
Fund takeover's Cornerstone: Rate hike. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
Dec 10, 2001; ... About a month after prevailing in a proxy fight for control of Excelsior Income Shares Inc, Ralph Bradshaw is asking shareholders to make his Ashland, N.C., money management company, Cornerstone Advisors Inc., the investment adviser to the New York-based closed-end fund. The ...
Morningstar goes to college plans. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
Dec 10, 2001; ... With more and more firms launching college savings plans, it was only a matter of time before Morningstar Inc. launched a product enabling financial advisers to rank them. The 529 Plan Center, unveiled last week on Morningstar Advisor. com, doesn't include a rating system like ...
Referral biz passes on. (Short Interests Tips, Trends & Observations).
Dec 10, 2001; ... After just three months in existence, Financial Planner Referral Inc. is moribund. Founder Andrew Orr, a certified financial planner in St. Petersburg, Fla., last week said that calls to the nascent referral business had dwindled to just one a day. Mr. Orr had ...
It's alive! But will it last? Tech stock rally breathes new life into sector given up for dead.
Dec 10, 2001; ... Is it a new beginning or the beginning of the end? Mutual funds that invest in technology are rising from the dead. The category has posted double-digit gains for two consecutive months. But the stunning performance has many wondering if the chance to make a fast ...
Sobering up about the Internet: Party may be over, but deal's still real.
Dec 10, 2001; ... It would be as easy now to blow off investing in Internet-related companies as it was to fall into the dot-com mania a couple of years ago. But the former would be much like the latter--an impulsive mistake. Despite the fact that the revolution didn't materialize as ...
Blowup at Enron blasts big, small: Only a few have escaped damage.
Dec 10, 2001; ... Enron Corp. (ENE) cut such a wide swath through the financial services industry that only the few and the fortunate escaped unscathed. Indeed, the Houston-based energy trading company's swift fall -- from No. 7 in the Fortune 500 to a company too small in market capitalization ...
Jobs continue their disappearing act. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
Dec 10, 2001; ... Quick, someone get a tourniquet! The U.S. economy shed jobs at a blistering pace for a second month in a row during November as the unemployment rate jumped to its highest level in more than six years, the Department of Labor said Friday. The government reported that another ...
AOL farewell. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * Gerald Levin is leaving. Mr. Levin, 62, the man behind the deal that created the world's largest media company--AOL Time Warner Inc.--said Wednesday he will step down as chief executive in May to get in touch with his "sensitive, creative side." Richard Parsons, 53, the ...
Schwab scrubs biz. (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * Global? Did we say we want to be global? Charles Schwab & Co., the nation's No. 1 discount broker, said Friday it is exiting the Australian and Japanese markets because of bad trading conditions. Meanwhile, it was ...
Disclosure glass: Is it half empty? (Reverse Spin the Week in Review).
Dec 10, 2001 ... * Apparently Wall Street folks can't quite understand full disclosure. A study by a Securities and Exchange Commission member of a year-old rule forcing companies to disclose key information to the public and Wall Street at the same time has concluded that the agency should ...
Enron loaded worker 401(k)s with company stock: Problem widespread, new study discovers.
Dec 10, 2001; ... Employees of Enron Corp. of Houston are in a double bind. Not only are they out of work, but the value of their 401(k) plans has plummeted. Those employees had some 62% of their 401(k) assets in Enron stock, David Certner, director of economic issues for AARP, said ...
Schwab makes a statement, finally: Cost-basis data to be added, with apologies from bigwigs.
Dec 10, 2001; ... After six years -- some advisers claim it's more like 10 -- Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. is prepared to provide a level of tax information on its statements similar to that of its two biggest competitors. The issue surfaced most recently at Schwab's Impact Conference in October, ...