[ This is a personal non-profit online research library and
is solely used by Scott Bryan Hill. Some of the links on this page lead to outside
resources and the presence of these links should not be taken as an
endorsement. ]
Separately Managed Accounts
| Consults
A
| B | C |
D | E |
F |
G | H |
I | J |
K | L | M |
N | O |
P | Q |
R | S |
T | U | V |
W | X |
Y |
Z
(
Symbol Guide
)
[ A ]
A 401(k) Picks a Mutual Fund. Who Gets a Perk?,
Lynn O’Shaughnessy, The New York Times, February 15, 2004.
“Federal and state regulators have begun to investigate whether mutual
funds are being included in 401(k) retirement plans for the wrong
reasons. Instead of selecting funds because they are the best
available, regulators say, some consultants and plan administrators
may be choosing them because of hidden financial incentives." ("Professional"
Money Management | Conflicts
of Interest (Financial Firms and Incentives) | Retirement Planning)
A Fight at Invesco Spotlights the Toll Of 'Market
Timers': Some Fund Managers Fumed That Special Deals Hurt Their
Ordinary Investors,
Susan Pulliam and Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal,
December 2, 2003. “In 1998, stock prices were surging and mutual-fund
companies were thriving. But inside Invesco Funds Group, a clash was
looming between fund managers and the company's senior management.
Portfolio managers at the prominent mutual-fund company were angry
about a new breed of fast-moving traders who were quietly changing the
rules of the mutual-fund business. These investors, many of them big
hedge funds, were quickly moving tens of millions of dollars in and
out of Invesco funds. Their goal was to profit from fleeting
discrepancies between the fund's official price, set each day at 4
p.m., and the shifting prices of the stocks the mutual funds held.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Investment
Company | Marketing
Timing)
A Money Manager to High Society Cultivates the Art of
the Schmooze,
Randall Smith, The Wall Street Journal, October 24, 2006.
“Karl Wellner, money manager to the ultrarich, recalls club hopping in
a convertible Bentley with one of his clients last winter in Palm
Beach, Fla., when the $350,000 car ran out of gas. His client thumbed
a ride to a gas station and soon the two were on their way. All in a
day's work for Mr. Wellner, a high-profile figure in the competitive
business of catering to the ultrawealthy. With the bull market in its
fourth year and stock indexes setting records, financial services for
the rich are booming. The number of U.S. households valued at $10
million or higher more than doubled from 1995 to 2004, to 530,000,
according to the Federal Reserve.” (Financial
Firms (Professional Money Management))
A Recipe for Weak Results,
Louis Lowenstein, Barron’s, June 10, 2006. “The average mutual
fund turns over its portfolio by more than 100% a year. Think about
that. In the course of one year, it sells the equivalent of all the
stocks it started out with, and then some. Turnover at some big,
established funds can even exceed 200%. I call it investing at warp
speed, and it's not good. All that senseless turnover takes a toll on
performance and, of course, creates tax liabilities. Patient,
long-term value investing would serve everyone much better.” ("Professional"
Money Management (Investment Vehicle Turnover)
Seminar Information
An Excerpt from The Great 401(k) Hoax,
William Wolman and Anne Colamosca, BusinessWeek Magazine, July
29, 2002. "For people who are approaching retirement, 401(k)
plans haven't yet proven to be the wealth-creating machines many had
hoped. Steep and prolonged declines in stocks have eaten away at many
people's retirement savings. Companies like Enron -- which not only
encouraged employees to put the bulk of their savings in company stock
but also blocked them from withdrawing it when the company started to
implode -- have sparked worry that company-sponsored 401(k) plans are
far less beneficial than they seem." ("Professional"
Money Management | Investment
Company | Retirement Plans)
Are You Paying Hidden Fund Costs?,
Christine Benz, Morningstar Online, January 24, 2006. “I'm
often surprised that many investors--even those who are quite savvy--
aren't aware that a mutual fund's expense ratio doesn't encompass all
of the costs associated with owning a fund. A host of other charges,
ranging from a fund's brokerage charges to tax costs, can reduce your
bottom line just assurely as your expense ratio will.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Seminar Information
[ B ]
Bargain Bin: Mutual-Fund Stocks,
Ian McDonald and Gregory Zuckerman, The Wall Street Journal,
June 8, 2004. "You might be better off buying shares of a mutual-fund
company rather than plowing money into a mutual fund. A
push-me-pull-you stock market and worries about rising interest rates
have weighed on shares of mutual-fund companies of late. T. Rowe Price
Group Inc., for instance, is down 12% since March, while Nuveen
Investments Inc. is off about 9% since a January high, more than twice
the drop of the overall market. Mutual-fund shares also have been hurt
by the seemingly never-ending fund-trading scandal, now in its 10th
month, which has sparked some investors to pull money out of funds
implicated in the investigation, and has cast a shadow on the
business. But all the bad news may be distracting Wall Street from a
fundamental truth about the mutual-fund business: Charging investors
often-hefty fees to manage their money is a profitable business. While
most fund firms are closely held, industry consultants say operating
margins average about 35%."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
Bear Drives Fund Marketers To Try New Approaches, Ian
MacDonald, The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2003. “After
years in which mutual-fund marketers could simply tout performance
figures and an 800 number, fund firms are grasping for new ways to
advertise and promote products that have cost customers dearly.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
Before Selling, Watch Out for Those Fund Exit Fees,
Eric Baum, The New York
Times, April 27, 2003. “As more investors reached their
pain thresholds last year and cashed out their fund holdings, the
amounts paid in exit fees to many top funds exceeded the amounts paid
in entrance fees on other types of the funds' shares. "The movie is
so bad more people are paying to get out than to get in," said James
Atkinson, principal of Orbis Marketing, a mutual fund consulting firm
in Los Angeles. From 1997 to 1999, investors paid about $5 billion to
get into the funds and $890 million to get out, according to the
research company Fund Expenses in New York. But from 2000 to 2002,
fees to buy equity funds rose only to $6 billion, while fees to sell
stock funds more than doubled, to $2 billion.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
Bull Market In Mutual-Fund Name Changes,
Diya Gullapalli and Shefali Anand, The Wall Street Journal,
February 10, 2006. “A mutual fund by any other name is still a mutual
fund. But if that name changes, investors should take notice. Mutual
funds have been busy changing their names at a rapid pace. Last year
alone, 719 funds fiddled with their names, according to Lipper Inc., a
research firm, up from 505 the year before. The changes vary from the
minor -- "Turnaround Fund" changed its name to "The Turnaround Fund"
because of trademark issues, it said -- to the controversial: In
recent weeks, Merrill Lynch & Co. said it would rebrand its "Merrill
Lynch" funds with the name "Princeton Portfolio Research &
Management," raising the ire of Princeton University.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Survivorship Bias)
Seminar Information
[ C ]
Calpers Wears a Party, or Union, Label,
Mary
Williams Walsh, The New York
Times, October 13, 2002. “The California Public Employees'
Retirement System, perhaps the nation's most prominent champion of
shareholder rights, has never suffered from an ill that plagues
corporate America: a supine board, unable to thwart managers' worst
instincts. In fact, Calpers, as it is known, is showing signs of the
opposite problem, some critics say: a board so activist, so eager to
promote social change through investing, that its effectiveness as a
corporate watchdog and its ability to provide for the 1.3 million
public employees whose pensions it guarantees are in question.” ("Professional"
Money Management: Calpers | Conflicts of
Interest | Pension Plans)
Can You Answer This Question: Who Owns Your Mutual Fund,
John Shipman, The Wall Street Journal,
May 5, 2003. "To a great many investors, a
mutual fund may as well be a black box. Most know that mutual funds
hold stocks, bonds or money-market securities. People put money into
the box with the expectation that their outlay will increase in value,
though for the past three years, stock-fund investors have learned
that isn't necessarily the case. But beyond that, many investors
would probably be hard-pressed when asked to describe the structure of
the investment vehicle that about 93 million fund shareholders have
entrusted with more than $6 trillion of their savings."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
Citigroup Ruling May Embolden Affluent Investors,
Clint Riley, The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2006. “An
arbitration ruling against Citigroup Inc.'s wealth-management unit may
lead to similar cases being brought by affluent investors who lost
money in portfolios that contained more risk than they say they were
led to believe. A three-member National Association of
Securities Dealers arbitration panel earlier this year ordered that
Citigroup must pay $900,000 to an Ohio couple who lost $1.23 million
in retirement savings in less than four years after placing the money
in a managed-investment program tailored to wealthy individuals by the
company's Smith Barney brokerage arm.” ("Professional" Money
Management | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
Comfort in Insured Funds, at a Price,
John Kimelman, The New York Times, March 9, 2003. "Frustrated
by a prolonged bear market, investors have poured money into mutual
funds that promise to eliminate their investment pain while holding
out the possibility of future gains.These funds, called
principal-protection funds, use insurance policies to safeguard a
shareholder's original investment over five or more years, after fees
have been paid. If there is a market upturn, investors can reap some
of the benefits."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
Critic of Mutual Fund Fees Was Once Their Advocate,
Christopher Oster, The Wall Street Journal, Friday, January 09,
2004. “When John Freeman takes shots at regulators for being soft on
the issue of mutual-fund fees that investors pay, he knows his
subject. More than two decades ago, he helped shape one of the
fund-fee rules he now wants changed. These days he is a professor of
legal and business ethics at the University of South Carolina. His
research into what shareholders pay the people running their mutual
funds has supplied ammunition to those trying to bring down fund fees,
including New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Vanguard Group
founder John C. Bogle.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
[ D ]
Dalbar: Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior 2009: The
Measurement of Success", Dalbar, 2009. (Behavior
Finance)
Seminar Information
Dalbar: Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behavior 2008: What Investors Really Do ...
And How to Counteract It", Dalbar, 2008. (Behavior
Finance)
Seminar Information
Dalbar Study Shows Market Timers
Lose Their Money,
Dalbar Inc., Boston, MA, April 1, 2004.
(Behavior Finance)
Seminar Information
Dalbar - Market Chasing Mutual
Fund Investors Earn Less than Inflation –Dalbar Study Shows,
Dalbar Inc., Boston, MA, July 15, 2003. (Behavior
Finance)
Seminar Information
Dalbar - More Proof that Market
Timing Doesn't Work for the Majority of Investors,
Dalbar Inc., Boston, MA, June 21, 2001. (Behavior
Finance)
Seminar Information
Deciphering Funds' Hidden Costs: Mutual-Fund Study
Reveals How Much Investors Actually Pay in Undisclosed Charges,
John Hechinger, The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2004. “The
battle over the fees the mutual-fund industry charges its customers is
coming to a head. The mutual-fund scandal began with the exposure of
trading practices that allowed big investors to profit at the expense
of individuals. The latest target: commissions that mutual funds pay
to brokers to buy and sell stocks. These costs get passed along to
investors with minimal disclosure. This week, scandal-scarred fund
company Massachusetts Financial Services Co. said it would stop making
"soft dollar" commission payments. The practice bundles in research
expenses and other charges with trading costs. In addition, funds that
trade stocks rapidly can drive down returns because of sky-high
brokerage commissions. Both practices have been criticized for jacking
up the price of owning mutual funds." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Define Aggressive: Fisher Sales And Marketing Practices,
Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2004.
“When it comes to managing money, Ken Fisher can make some impressive
boasts. As the stock market was nearing a peak in early 2000, for
example, Mr. Fisher went from 100% bullish to 100% bearish, protecting
his clients from the start of the long slide that followed. And
when it comes to trying to attract customers to open accounts with his
firm, Mr. Fisher is far from shy about promoting his accomplishments.
With the help of extensive mass mailings, ubiquitous pop-up ads on the
Internet and regular columns in Forbes magazine, Fisher Investments
has had explosive growth in assets, going from $4 billion under
management in 2000 to around $20 billion today." ("Professional" Money
Management | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts (Fisher
Investments)
Different Toppings, Same Scoop,
Suzanne McGee, Barron’s, February 19, 2007. “If you’re wealthy
enough, you can have furniture or clothing tailor-made to your needs,
tastes and budget. Likewise, many affluent investors have unique
objectives, risk affinities and tax profiles. Attracting the business
of these individuals has energized the marketing push behind
separately-managed accounts -- the product that has reshaped the
investing landscape for those wealthy enough to allocate anywhere from
$250,000 to $2 million or more in a single investment strategy. "This
is a booming business," says Chip Roame, managing director of Tiburon,
Calif.-based research and consulting firm Tiburon Strategic Advisors.
"A big part of the reason for that is the idea that you're getting
something special, a portfolio built just for you, something you can
brag about a bit at a cocktail party." (Money
Management (Active versus. Passive Debate) | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
Disney Publishing Unit Settles Suit Over Claims of Beardstown Ladies,
Jerry Markon, The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2002.
"People who bought folksy investment guides touting the famously
flawed strategy of the Beardstown Ladies will be able to collect an
unusual dividend: another book." (Beardstown
Ladies)
Seminar Information (Beardstown Ladies)
Does the Expense Ratio Tell the Whole Story?,
Riva D. Atlas, The New York Times, February 8, 2004.
“William H. Miller III has beaten the Standard & Poor's 500-stock
index for the last 13 years. So is his fund, the Legg Mason Value
Trust, a good choice for investors? Not according to some mutual fund
industry critics, who say investors should avoid funds with high fees.
Mr. Miller's fund has an expense ratio of 1.7 percent, compared with
1.5 percent for the average domestic stock fund, according to
Morningstar Inc. The fund also charges a fee for marketing expenses,
known as a 12b-1 fee, which many critics abhor. But Mr. Miller makes
no apologies. "Our record is out there, and people can make
their own judgments,'' he said, adding that investors obsess too much
over a fund's expense ratio, the most common yardstick for judging
whether it is charging too much." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
[ E ]
Endangered "Soft-Dollar" Days,
Erin Arvedlund,
Barron's, May 26, 2003.
"Did
you pay for this magazine with "soft dollars?" If you did, chances are
you're a portfolio manager, or work elsewhere for the buy-side of the
investment business. If you didn't, perhaps you're an investor in
mutual funds, and may not know the first thing about soft dollars.
Soft dollars may be on the way out -- and that could revolutionize the
way you buy mutual funds."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Era of "Masstige,"
Erin Arvedlund, Barron's, January 27, 2002. "And what do
investors make of all this? Boston Consulting's idea of "new luxury,"
or high-brow concepts for middle-market consumers, means consumers may
be willing to pay up to 10 times conventional prices."
("Professional" Money
Management | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
[ F ]
401(k)'s Are Grand, for Fund Companies Anyhow,
Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, October 26, 2003. “If
the sundry investigations into dubious mutual fund practices haven't
yet angered you, perhaps this will: The financial services companies
overseeing some 401(k) plans are racking up annual profits that can
exceed five times the plans' costs. This disturbing revelation comes
courtesy of Brent L. Glading, a 15-year veteran of the mutual fund and
401(k) industry. A former high-level sales executive at Dreyfus Funds,
Merrill Lynch and Massachusetts Mutual, he started the Glading Group
last year to show companies offering plans both what their 401(k)'s
are costing employees and what they are generating in profits for the
companies that run them. Armed with the data he supplies them, 401(k)
sponsors can negotiate to get some of those profits back for plan
participants. Of the $10.2 trillion invested for retirement, $2.1
trillion sat in mutual funds as of the end of last year. Sad to say,
but much of this is money that is sensitive to neither fees nor
performance. And when it is in a 401(k), it is captive. Roughly $1
trillion is locked in corporate-sponsored 401(k) plans.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Retirement Planning)
Fee Accounts Face Scrutiny By Regulators,
Ruth Simon, The Wall Street Journal, October 5, 2004.
“Securities regulators are stepping up their scrutiny of one of the
brokerage industry's fastest-growing sectors: accounts that charge
customers an annual fee instead of per-trade commissions. The
Securities and Exchange Commission has recently begun probing alleged
abuses in these programs, joining ongoing efforts by the New York
Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers. In
fee-based accounts, which have become increasingly popular during the
past few years, investors pay a fixed percentage of their assets each
year regardless of how much or how little trading activity takes
place. It's unclear which specific programs are being investigated.
The largest fee-based brokerage programs are Merrill Lynch & Co.'s
"Unlimited Advantage," Morgan Stanley's "Choice," UBS AG's "InsightOne"
and Wachovia Corp.'s "Pilot Plus," according to Cerulli Associates, a
Boston-based research firm.” ("Professional" Money
Management | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
Fee Arrangements at 401(k)s May Get More Scrutiny,
Kathy Chu, The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2004.
“Potentially lucrative fee arrangements between 401(k) record keepers
and mutual-fund firms may be the next regulatory headache for the
financial-services industry. Since the 1980s, mutual-fund firms have
paid to be included on the platform of other fund companies that serve
as 401(k) record keepers. In some cases, the funds turn over as much
as 75% of the fees they collect from retirement plan investors to
these record keepers in exchange for administrative services and
placement, according to Brent Glading, founder of Glading Group, a
pension-consulting firm in Montclair, N.J."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Fees Eat Away at Employees' 401(k) Nest Eggs,
Walter Hamilton, Kathy M. Kristof and Josh Friedman, The
Los Angeles
Times,
April 23, 2006. “John Fuchs was checking his 401(k) account online
one afternoon when he saw something that seemed amiss. Listed along
with his regular contributions was a $48 charge, in red. That's odd,
he thought.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
For Mutual Funds, Calls For Reform,
Floyd Norris, The New York Times, June 15, 2003. "With
Congress having gone after corporate America
with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, is it time for it to turn its attention
to the mutual fund industry? The head of the House subcommittee with
responsibility for mutual funds introduced legislation last week that
could give investors more information about the fees they are paying,
and perhaps in the process spur more price competition among funds."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Frequently Asked Questions About Mutual Fund Fees
- Investment Company Institute, September 1999.
Fund Fees: Up or Down?,
Jim McTague, Barron’s, August 15, 2005. “Back in 1989, a
Compaq desktop computer with an Intel 486 processor retailed for about
$15,000, and companies snapped them up because the then-cutting-edge
machines promised to provide big gains in productivity. That
same year, the annual cost to investors of owning a mutual fund --
what prospectuses refer to as the "expense ratio" -- averaged 0.97% of
assets, or $9.70 per $1,000 invested per year. These annual fees pay
for such things as administration, management, operations, advertising
and distribution."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Fund Industry Foul Ball: Marketing Gone Astray, Ian
McDonald, The Wall Street Journal, October 11, 2002.
“Mutual-fund outfits routinely exhort us to practice long-term
thinking in glossy investing brochures. But some should, well, take a
page from their own book. During this downturn, with its woeful
stock-fund inflows and fund company layoffs, fund execs have chided
investors for chasing performance in the tech bubble. They say the
biggest problem facing the industry today is obvious: the millions of
unhappy and poorer investors who rode the tech tiger and got
themselves cut to ribbons. Two weeks ago one veteran fund manager
privately, and less than charitably, likened bitter investors who
piled into tech and tech-heavy funds at that mercurial sector's peak
to smokers who puff away for decades and then sue Phillip Morris when
they take ill.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
Fund Directors' Compensation Is on the Rise, Survey
Shows, Ian MacDonald, The Wall
Street Journal, April 17, 2003. "Most stock funds lost money last
year, but fund directors got a raise. Directors' compensation at the
nation's 50 largest fund companies rose 8.2%, with the median salary
hitting $113,000 for directors overseeing more than $60 billion in
assets, according to a survey released earlier this month by Stamford,
Conn.-based consultant Management Practice, Inc. Directors at smaller
fund firms got a 17.5% pay increase, though trustees overseeing fewer
funds and less assets don't make as much as their peers at bigger
shops. Venerable investor Warren Buffett and
Vanguard founder John C. Bogle each publicly castigated fund directors
last month for failing to do a better job of securing talented
investment managers and keeping expenses modest."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Funds Tout Access To Top Managers,
Jeff D. Opdyke, The New York Times, June 7, 2005. “Individual
investors are pouring money into a type of investment long favored by
institutions and the super-wealthy. Last year, a record $50 billion
flowed into so-called manager-of-managers funds -- investments in
which an financial company takes an individual investor's cash, pools
it with money from other investors, then spreads the cumulative amount
across a range of often-exclusive money managers. The flow of dollars
into these funds last year more than doubled from 2003 and is up from
about $8.5 billion in 2002, according to a new report by research and
consulting firm Cerulli Associates."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
[ G ]
Guaranteed: How About A Mutual Fund With The Upside Of The Stock
Market And No Risk Of Principal Loss? It's Too Good To Be True,
James M. Clash, Forbes, June 9, 2003. “The pitch from your
broker is alluring: Throw $10,000 into a mutual fund and wait five
years. If the stock market is lower than when you put the money in,
you get your original investment back--no questions asked. But if the
stock market is up, you get a piece of the action. What a deal! These
investments are called principal-protected funds. They usually go out
at least five years and some--like the Scudder Target Funds--go as far
as ten. You can see why, after three bear-market years, such funds
have grown very popular."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
[ H ]
Hype From A Financial Guru (Fisher),
Business Week, May 20, 2004. "Disgruntled
clients say Ken Fisher's "customized portfolios" look very similar." ("Professional" Money
Management | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts (Fisher
Investments)
[ I ]
Inspection Report on the Soft Dollar Practices of Broker-Dealers,
Investment Advisers and Mutual Funds,
The Office of Compliance, Inspections and
Examinations, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission,
September 22, 1998.
"While
most of the products acquired with soft dollars are research, we found
that a significant number of broker-dealers (35%) and advisers (28%)
provided and received non-research products and services in soft
dollar arrangements. Although receipt of non-research (or
non-brokerage) products for soft dollars can be lawful if adequate
disclosure has been made, our sweep inspections revealed that
virtually all of the advisers that obtained non-research products and
services had failed to provide meaningful disclosure of such practices
to their clients."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Is It an Offer You Can't Refuse? These Funds Offer Safe Harbor,
Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2002.
"But what are investors really buying when they invest in a guaranteed
fund? Critics don't question the guarantee aspect of the funds, which
in many cases is actually backed up by an insurance policy. One catch,
though, is that an investor who pulls out before a specified time
period can take a loss."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles)) Principal
Protection Vehicle
[ J ]
[ K ]
Know a Fund's' Cost? Look Deeper,
Richard Teitelbaum, The New York Times, February 9, 2003.
"When investors place their money in the RS MidCap Opportunities fund,
it is not unreasonable for them to believe that they will pay about
1.47 percent of their net assets each year for doing so. That, after
all, is the fund's expense ratio, as stated in its latest annual
report, for 2001. Those investors, however, would be only about half
right."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
[ L ]
Less is Less: The Dark Side Of the Urge to Merge Funds,
Ian McDonald, The Wall Street Journal, July 10, 2002. "The
mutual fund world seems poised to shrink, but that might be a more
pleasant and profitable experience for fund companies than for we fund
investors." ("Professional" Money
Management | Survivorship Bias)
Seminar Information
[ M ]
Making Sense Of the Mutual Fund Scandal Everything You
May Not Want To Ask (but really should know) About The Crisis That's
Rocking The Investment World, Janice
Revell and David Stires, Fortune, Monday, November 10, 2003.
“The mutual fund business has long portrayed itself as a model citizen
in the sometimes seamy world of financial markets. But the avalanche
of allegations charging abusive behavior in the $7 trillion industry
over the past few months has been enough to shake any investor's
faith. Congressional hearings in early November painted a picture of a
business awash in conflicts of interest and self-dealing, where
insiders profit at the expense of ordinary investors—"the world's
largest skimming operation," as one Senator put it.” ("Professional"
Money Management)
Managed Accounts Lure Affluent But Are They Worth the
Price?,
Terry Cullen,
The Wall Street Journal,
November 6, 2003. “In the wake of the
widening mutual-funds scandal, separately managed accounts may be
starting to look especially attractive to some affluent investors and
financial advisors. With a separately managed account, a professional
money manager -- who might also manage mutual funds or money for
institutional investors -- also manages a basket of investments just
for you.” (Money
Management (Active versus. Passive Debate) | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
Measuring the True Cost of Active Management by Mutual
Funds, Ross M. Miller (State
University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, Department of Finance) and
and Miller Risk Advisors, August 2005. “At the end of 2004, the mean
active expense ratio for the large-cap equity mutual funds tracked by
Morningstar was 7%, over six times their published expense ratio of
1.15%. More broadly, funds in the Morningstar universe had a mean
active expense ratio of 5.2%, while the largest funds averaged a
percent or two less.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
More Funds Trim Fees to Restore Trust of Investors,
Ian McDonald, The Wall Street Journal, December 14, 2005. “In
the wake of the share-trading scandal in 2003, a rising number of
mutual funds are trimming their fees. More than 850 of the nation's
mutual funds last year lowered the management fees they charge
investors, up from 239 in 2003, according to a study expected to be
released today by Lipper Inc. This year, the number of funds with such
cuts is on pace to hit 700, according to the fund-tracking company.
The number of funds that trimmed fees in 2004 was the most in at least
a decade, by Lipper's tally.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs) Seminar
Information
Morgan Stanley's Portfolios Get Priority,
Despite Rules, Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal, May 22,
2003. In the late 1990s, securities regulators adopted
customer-protection rules to prevent brokers from pushing sales of
their company's mutual funds over offerings run by outside fund
managers. In-house funds generate more profits for the Wall Street
firms, and to avoid potential conflicts of interest, the rules bar
brokers from receiving extra compensation or gifts to steer clients
toward the internally managed portfolios. Those rules bolstered
broker sales of outside mutual funds, but at Morgan Stanley,
one of Wall Street's most aggressive mutual-fund providers, executives
have been determined to keep sales of its in-house lineup of
portfolios as high as possible. To prop up in-house sales without
violating the consumer-protection rules can be a balancing act, but
Morgan Stanley has managed to do just that, often using methods not
employed at other big brokerage firms. Morgan Stanley's clients aren't
informed of many of the practices that might influence which funds are
being recommended." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
Mutual Fund Costs 1980-1998
- Investment Company Institute, September 1999.
Multimanager Funds Find Investors,
Sara Calian, The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2004.
“Mutual-fund investors are increasingly looking for more professional
help. World-wide assets in accounts with multiple managers grew 28%
to $678 billion last year and are on track to grow 14% this year,
according to a study that will be released later this week by Cerulli
Associates, a fund-management research firm in Boston. These include
funds of funds, which buy shares of other mutual funds, and
manager-of-managers funds, which hire several fund managers who work
for different companies to oversee different portions of their
portfolios.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing)
Mutual Fund Math Puts A Sheen on Returns: 'Survivorship
Bias' Calculation Makes Bad Performances Vanish; Industry Group Has No
Position, Ian McDonald, The Wall
Street Journal, July 23, 2004. “The average returns of stock
mutual funds are often underwhelming. Turns out, they are also
overstated. The track records of mutual funds that are either
merged into other funds or liquidated are erased from the databases
that fund companies and the media generally use to measure
performance. Like a kid's unwanted drawing on an Etch A Sketch, they
vanish, leaving only the records of so-called survivor funds, usually
those with better returns, more assets and lower expenses." ("Professional"
Money Management | Survivorship Bias) Seminar
Information
Mutual Funds Fees Around the World,
Ajay Khorana (Georgia Institute of Technology - Finance
Area), Henri Servaes (London Business School; Centre for Economic
Policy Research (CEPR)), Peter Tufano
Harvard Business School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)),
May 7, 2006. “Using a new database, we study fees charged by 46,799
mutual funds offered for sale in 18 countries, which together account
for about 86% of the world fund industry. We examine management fees,
total expense ratios and estimated total shareholding costs (which
include load charges). Fees vary substantially from country to
country. To explain these differences, we consider fund, sponsor and
national characteristics. We generally find that larger funds and fund
complexes charge lower fees, as do funds selling cross-nationally,
while fees are higher for funds distributed in more countries and
funds domiciled in so-called offshore locations. Substantial
cross-country differences persist even after controlling for these
variables. These remaining differences can be explained by a variety
of factors, the most robust of which is that fund fees are lower in
countries with stronger investor protection.” (Financial
Firms and Money Management (Investment Vehicles Costs and Fees))
Seminar Information
Mutual Fund Mergers Jump Sharply,
Eleanor Laise, The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 2006. “A
growing number of mutual funds are merging as financial-services
companies come under pressure to cut costs, but fund investors don't
always come out winners.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Survivorship Bias)
Seminar Information
Mutual Funds Try to Play Hedge Game By Offering
Investors 'Absolute' Gains, Karen
Damato, The Wall Street Journal, October 7, 2005. “This may be
absolutely the latest trend in mutual funds: portfolios with the
stated goal of producing "absolute" returns. A number of fund
companies have recently launched or are preparing to introduce funds
that aim to deliver absolute performance -- that is, steady gains even
when stock and bond markets go down. That focus has more commonly been
associated with hedge funds offered to institutions and affluent
individuals." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Absolute Returns))
Mutual Fund Trading Fees Drop,
Ian MacDonald and Diya Gullapalli, The Wall Street Journal,
August 12, 2005. “Mutual-fund investors are losing less of their
money to trading costs than they used to. But these costs can still be
quite large -- and largely hidden from view. The decline in
transaction costs is welcome news for fund investors, since these
costs are paid out of fund assets and eat into returns. While there
are notable exceptions, studies have shown that mutual-fund managers
who buy and hold tend to do better than their rapid-trading
competitors over the long haul. A big reason the tortoise funds
usually beat the hare funds is simple: The buy-and-hold funds spend
less on trading commissions." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
[ N ]
[ O ]
Only Fools Fall in Managed Accounts,
Jonathon Clement, The Wall Street Journal, September 15, 2002.
"Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny should take a few pointers from the
mutual fund industry. All three are trying to pull off an elaborate
hoax." (Money
Management (Active versus. Passive Debate) | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
Out of Sight, Out of Mind The Effects of Expenses on
Mutual Fund Flows, Brad M.
Barber, Terrance Odean and Lu Zheng, Working Paper, December 2001.
“We argue that the purchase decisions of mutual fund investors are
influenced by salient, attention grabbing information. Investors are
more sensitive to salient in-your-face fees, like loads and
commissions, than operating expenses; they are likely to buy funds
that attract their attention through exceptional performance or
advertising. Our empirical analysis of mutual fund flows over the
last 30 years yields strong support for our contention.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
[ P ]
Paid for Performance, and Freed From the Herd,
Mark Hulbert, The New York Times, October 23, 2005. “Evidence
is mounting that mutual fund managers are more likely to think for
themselves when their pay is closely linked to their fund's
performance. Just last month, the Janus Capital Group, the fund
company based in Denver, established performance incentives for the
managers of 13 of its mutual funds. This means that they will earn
significantly more if their funds outperform the indexes they use as
benchmarks. Janus thus joins several large fund families, including
Fidelity Investments and the Vanguard Group, that use such incentives
to compensate some of their funds' managers." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Governance)
Mutual Funds and Bubbles: The Surprising Role of
Contractual Incentives: This paper
deals with one of the potential causes of the financial market bubble
of the late 1990s: herding behavior of mutual funds
Paid to Perform,
Andrew Barry,
Barron’s, November 15, 2004. “Mutual-fund companies invariably
say that performance is paramount, but relatively few have tied their
fund-management fees to their investment records. Fidelity Investments
and Vanguard Group are courageous exceptions, as are American Express,
Bridgeway, Eaton Vance, Pioneer and USAA. Roughly 5% of equity funds
have incentive, or performance, fees. Those 200 or so funds control
$520 billion, or 13%, of the $4 trillion in equity-fund assets,
according to Lipper's fund-analysis group.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Governance)
Portfolio Transactions Costs at U.S. Equity Mutual
Funds, Jason
Karceski, Miles Livingston and Edward S. O'Neal, Zero Alpha Group,
November 17, 2004. “We study the trading costs for a large
sample of equity mutual funds. Using the actual brokerage commissions
paid in 2002 and estimating the implicit trading costs, we find that
fund investors bear substantial portfolio trading costs. Equity funds
incur an average annual explicit brokerage commission of 38 basis
points and an average annual implicit trading cost of 58 basis points.
When measured separately for different mutual fund styles, these costs
are highest for small cap funds and lowest for large cap funds. About
46% of all small cap mutual funds have trading costs that are higher
than the annual fees investors pay. We suspect that many mutual fund
investors are completely unaware of these trading costs and simply
assume that the reported expense ratio includes them. Our findings
suggest that greater attention to trading costs might help investors
make more informed mutual fund investment decisions and that greater
disclosure of trading costs might benefit investors.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Portfolio With Cachet, and Costs,
Eric Baum, The New York Times, June 1, 2003. "Private
money management, once reserved for the wealthy, is being offered to
thousands of mutual fund shareholders with $50,000 or less to invest.
But many financial advisers warn that the private management of
assets, in what are often known as separately managed accounts, may
not be appropriate for people of modest wealth. "The industry is
trying to make a status symbol available to the masses," said Victor
Guettlein, president of BluePrint Financial Services, a financial
planning firm in Arvada, Colo. "Just because they're available doesn't
mean they should be used." (Money
Management (Active versus. Passive Debate) | Investment
Companies (Managed and Consult Accounts))
Professionally Managed Accounts
Preferred' Funds Get More Money, Kathy Chu, The New
York Times, January 25, 2005. “A mutual fund that is part of a
brokerage firm's "preferred" group of investments can receive as much
as 10 times the amount of money as another fund not on the list,
according to new research. This finding, from Cerulli Associates, a
Boston research and consulting firm, comes as regulators scrutinize a
common but contentious industry practice under which mutual-fund firms
pay brokerage houses to promote their funds. The payments, known as
revenue sharing, are a key factor in determining which funds get on
the preferred list.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
Principled Protected Products: Commentary - Partial Protection
May Be Worse Than None At All,
Chuck Jaffe, CBSMarketWatch, April 11, 2003. "And
while you would think it would be impossible to appeal to both of
those emotions simultaneously, a relatively new class of investments
attempts to do just that. "Principal protection" is the label
financial services firms are throwing on any number of products these
days, ranging from mutual funds to investment notes.."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
Principal Unprotected,
Erin Arvedlund,
Barron's,
February 10, 2003. "Despite promises, some mutual funds may
not safeguard your money."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
Promise Of Portfolio Protection,
Jane J. Kim, The Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, 29, 2002.
"These days, any type of guaranteed investment is bound to attract
some attention. Financial institutions have rolled out a
smorgasbord of hybrid securities that protect your original investment
while giving you a chance to capture market gains. And battle-weary
investors are responding to the promise of portfolio protection by
pouring hefty sums of money into these vehicles. In most cases,
you'll get back your initial investment in products that range from
principal-protected mutual funds to equity-linked securities,
certificates of deposit and annuities after a set period even if
stocks continue to plummet. If stocks soar, you'll get back some - but
not all - of the gains."
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
'
Protection' Funds: Peace Of Mind Becomes Pricey, Tom
Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2003. "Some
investors may be paying a steep price for buying "principal
protection" mutual funds. First, people who have collectively put
more than $10 billion into these funds in recent years were told in
marketing materials they would get stock-market exposure along with a
guarantee of getting their money back. In practice, however, investors
ended up with portfolios that in some cases are almost entirely bonds.
That has ended up hurting them lately, as bond prices have sunk as
stocks have risen. Now investors in the principal-protection
portfolios offered by ING Funds, which oversees $2.3 billion in such
funds and has been a leader in offering them, face another twist.
Under a policy just adopted by boards of these funds, shareholders
could end up paying high management fees normally charged on actively
managed stock portfolios even though fund managers won't be selecting
any stocks in which to invest." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
[ Q ]
[ R ]
Read the Fine Print, Your Fund Broker May Be Tempted by an Extra
Reward,
Ian McDonald, The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2002.
"Investors looking to stash some extra cash into
an IRA during the tax season may want to take a closer look at the
fine print before grabbing mutual fund pitched by their brokers. Amid
sagging sales, several fund companies are quietly offering brokers an
extra commission to push their funds. The financial incentive, critics
worry, could tempt brokers to choose personal gains over a client's
best interest." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
[ S ]
Safer' Mutual Funds Look Sorry,
Ian McDonald, The Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2005.
“Money is leaking out of what are known as principal-protected mutual
funds, as investors learn the perils of playing it safe. These
ultraconservative mutual funds guarantee to return at least an
investor's initial or principal investment, after fees, several years
down the road. From August 2001 through May 2003, they attracted more
than $7 billion as investors rattled by the bear market fell in love
with the idea, according to data from fund-tracker Lipper Inc. But
now, these funds' cautious investment style and steep fees have left
their returns lagging far behind stock funds.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Principle and
Insured Vehicles))
Principal Protection Vehicle
Schwab to Boost Managed Mutual-Fund Products,
Jane J. Kim, The Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2006. “With
thousands of mutual funds to choose from, the process of selecting and
building a diversified portfolio can be overwhelming. In response,
Wall Street has rolled out managed mutual-fund portfolios -- also
known as mutual-fund "wrap accounts" -- that are geared to investors
who would prefer to let someone else take over that role.”
("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
SEC Divulges Details Of How Edward Jones Pushed Mutual
Funds, Laura Johannes and John
Hechinger, The Wall Street Journal, December 23, 2004. “Edward
D. Jones & Co. brokers were awarded points toward trips to
Caribbean and European resorts for selling customers mutual funds from
firms that were secretly making cash payments to the brokerage house,
the Securities and Exchange Commission said. The SEC made final a $75
million settlement agreement, in which the commission said Edward D.
Jones accepted tens of millions of dollars in secret fees from seven
preferred fund groups, potentially tainting the Jones brokers'
investment advice to customers in favor of those funds.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
SEC Looks at Brokers And Mutual-Fund Sales,
Despite Rules, Debraho Solomon, The Wall Street Journal, May
22, 2003. "The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched a
fact-finding probe to determine whether conflicts of interest exist in
the way Wall Street brokerage firms are compensated when selling
mutual funds, according to people familiar with the matter." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
SEC Takes On Commissions,
Floyd Norris, The New York Times, June 11, 2003. "Congress
should tighten the rules on "soft dollar"
commissions by limiting the types of services that mutual funds can
obtain with such payments, the Securities and Exchange Commission said
in a report released yesterday. The proposal was made in a report
prepared by the S.E.C.'s division of investment management after
Representative Richard H. Baker, chairman of the House subcommittee on
capital markets, asked wide-ranging questions regarding the regulation
of mutual funds." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs (Soft Dollars))
Should Brokers Disclose Incentives?,
Judith Burns, The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2003. "Brokers
may be in the best position to inform investors about revenue-sharing
deals that their firms have in place with mutual-fund companies, a
Securities and Exchange Commission official said." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
Some Military Fund Investors End Up Bearing Heavy ‘Load,’
Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal,
November 27, 2002. “How’s this for a sale pitch: commit to investing
regularly in the same mutual fund for 15 years or more, while handling
over half your first year’s investment as a sales commission. Even
though there are no other commissions, most investors would laugh off
the idea. Yet a little known company called First Command Financial
Planning has built an empire by selling just such funds to members of
the armed forces.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
[ T ]
This is News? Fund Fees Are Too High, Study Says,
Tom Lauricella, The Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2001.
“Mutual-Fund investors who fear they’ve been paying far too much in
investment management fees aren’t paranoid. They’re right.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs)
[ U ]
[ V ]
Vanguard's Bogle Says Thousands of U.S. Stock Funds May
Close, Joel Dreyfuss and Ed
Leefeldt, Bloomberg, August 23, 2002. "On average, U.S.
stock funds posted annual returns of 10.8 percent during the 1990s,
according to the Investment Company Institute, compared with an 18
percent average annual gain in the S&P 500." ("Professional"
Money Management | Survivorship Bias)
Seminar Information
[ W ]
Wall Street
Makes "Soft Dollar" Pitch,
Arden
Dale,
The Wall Street
Journal, July 11, 2006. “Soft dollars are
sanctioned under an old law, but the SEC has been revisiting the
matter because of concerns about possible abuses. While soft dollars
are used to cover the costs of investment research and other services
that some observers believe are worth the extra commission cost,
critics contend they can force shareholders of mutual funds to pay for
conference fees, computers, office administration and other amenities
that money managers should cover out of their own budgets." ("Professional" Money
Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs (Soft-Dollars))
Seminar Information
Wall Street Pushes Inflation Protection,
Jane J.
Kim,
The Wall Street
Journal, May 5, 2005. “Investors are increasingly
concerned about inflation, and Wall Street is happy to oblige them.
Securities firms including Merrill Lynch & Co. and Bear Stearns Cos.
are aggressively pitching inflation-linked products, ranging from
municipal and corporate bonds to certificates of deposit, all of which
aim to provide investors with a return above the rate of inflation. At
the same time, Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS --
Treasury bonds whose value increases with inflation -- are seeing
renewed interest." ("Professional" Money
Management (Inflation Linked
Credit (Bonds and Notes)))
Want to Pump New Life Into a Fund? Change Its Name,
Mark Hulbert, The New York Times, December 28, 2003.
“Investors apparently pay much attention to mutual funds' names. Funds
that change names often receive a significant increase in inflows,
even when they have not altered their investment strategies. Though
this behavior appears irrational, it is widespread, according to a
recent study conducted by three finance professors, Michael J. Cooper
and P. Raghavendra Rau, both of Purdue University, and Huseyin Gulen
of Virginia Tech. They examined 296 stock mutual funds in the United
States that changed their names from April 1994 to July 2001 by adding
or deleting the words "value," "growth," "small" or "large." ("Professional"
Money Management | Survivorship Bias) Research
Report:
Changing Names With Style: Mutual Fund Name Changes
And Their Effects On Fund Flows
Seminar Information
Where Are They Now: The Beardstown Ladies,
Mark Gongloff, The Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2006. “If
you're looking for a moment when the perma-grin of the dot-com boom
first started to crack, you need to look further back than when the
Nasdaq imploded or corporate scandals erupted. Before the tech-stock
pratfall -- and before Enron, WorldCom and Tyco -- there were the
Beardstown Ladies. It is of course monumentally unfair to even
mention that well-intentioned and influential investment club in the
same breath as those other embarrassments, which involved epic fraud
and cost investors billions of dollars. The Beardstown Ladies, in
contrast, merely goofed when calculating their annual returns.”
(Beardstown
Ladies)
Seminar Information (Beardstown Ladies)
Who's Watching Your Fund Manager?,
Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, September 14, 2001.
“In a financial world rife with conflicts and confidence games, the
mutual fund industry holds itself out as a haven for investors. But
that image was badly tarnished 11 days ago when Eliot Spitzer, the New
York attorney general, said he had discovered disturbing and unfair
practices at a handful of mutual fund companies. So are the practices
uncovered by Mr. Spitzer anomalies, as the industry argues? Or will a
continuing investigation of the fund business turn up additional
mischief?.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
Why A Brokerage Giant Pushes Some Mediocre Mutual
Funds: Jones & Co. Gets Payments From 'Preferred' Vendors,
Laura Johannes and John Hechinger, The Wall Street Journal,
January 09, 2004. “Like many who bought poorly performing Putnam
mutual funds in recent years, Nancy Wessels lost big. One of her
investments, Putnam Vista fund, dropped 40% from when she bought it in
April 2000, near the stock-market peak, until she sold it in May 2002.
That performance was worse than 80% of similar stock funds. What the
80-year-old widow's broker, Edward D. Jones & Co., never told her was
that it had a strong incentive to sell Putnam funds instead of rivals
that performed better. Jones receives hefty payments – one estimate
tops $100 million a year -- from Putnam and six other fund companies
in exchange for favoring those companies' funds at Jones's 8,131 U.S.
sales offices, the largest brokerage network in the nation.” ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
Seminar Information
Why Brokers Pitch the Worst Funds Hardest,
Timothy Middleton, MSN Money Center,
July 23, 2002.
"Most of the
stockbrokers who work for American Express are what those in the real
estate business call “motivated sellers.” But only of Amex’s
proprietary, or house, funds.
Beginning next month, if those brokers, whom Amex calls
“financial advisers,” sell funds other than Amex’s own, their
commissions will be reduced. If the brokers sell the portfolios of the
confusingly similarly named American Funds, which are among the best
in the industry, the back-door commission cut could actually cost the
broker money." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
Seminar
Why Your Broker Is Pushing That Fund: SEC Probes Practice of Firms
Getting Paid to Tout Investments; A Look at Who Does What,
Ruth Simon, The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2004. “Most
people don't care about the relationship between their broker and
their mutual fund company. But they should. The recent investigation
of the mutual-fund industry has focused largely on abusive trading
that allowed speculators to profit at the expense of long-term
investors. But, as the probe of the $7 trillion industry broadens,
regulators are increasingly turning their attention to the murky world
of mutual-fund sales practices. Among the issues under scrutiny: the
payments that fund companies make in exchange for a spot on the
"preferred lists" of brokerage firms or access to the firms'
brokers." ("Professional"
Money Management | Financial Firms,
Investment Company & Fees and Costs | Marketing (Sales))
Seminar Information
[ X ]
[ Y ]
[ Z ]