Should Funds Disclose Proxy Votes?
From TheStreet.com
Syre and Bailey take on the issue of fund proxy voting disclosure. They point to the example of Domini funds that is disclosing how the fund voted the 400 proxies of its stocks on its Web site. The duo claim that the common excuse of fund companies for not making this disclosure -- it costs too much -- no longer holds water.

Hancock Speeds Demutualization
From the Boston Globe
John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance will speed its conversion to a stock company to take advantage of the strong market. It now plans to make the offering in the first quarter of 2000. Last year the insurer's assets under management jumped 10% to $124.4 billion. Its earnings grew 19.2% to $627 million and its surplus rose 8.2% to $4.7 billion.

Pay Cuts for Fund Execs
From the Detroit News
Not all fund execs are getting raises, according to this article reported by Bloomberg News. The article focuses on Norton Reamer, chief executive of United Asset Management Corp. and Keith Tucker, the CEO of Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. Tucker earned $1.2 million including bonus but saw his options sink underwater and expire worthless. Reamer earned $1.471 million including his bonus which was reduced 19% from 1997.

Pru Execs' Departure Chips the Rock
From InvestmentNews
Prudential Asset Management has been hit with a number of senior level resignations including Brian M. Storms, president, Mendel Melzer, chief investment officer and Rob Schmidt, head of marketing. Storms landed at Paine Webber, Melzer at Weiss Peck & Greer and Schmidt has not yet resurfaced. Last week, the MutualFundWire.com also broke the news that Mark Fetting, the 44-year-old president of Prudential Institutional Investment and Retirement Services will resign this week. InvestmentNews puts the defections in the context of Prudential's planned demutualization. After the insurer becomes a stock company one of its first tasks may be to use the new won cash to purchase an asset management company to rebuild its business. A spokesperson for Prudential is reported as explaining the staff turnover is always high at this time of year since bonuses have been paid out.

Web Site Shootout
From the Wall Street Journal
The Journal documents the competition between two Web sites that have become havens for mutual fund day traders. The sites -- www.fundsinteractive.com and www.FundVision.com -- both feature chat boards dominated by investors looking to use technical indicators to trade in and out of funds.

Also in the WSJ Jonathan Clements recommends that many investors can simplify their lives and not harm their returns by trimming their holdings back to just one fund. He recommends five funds for the job. They are:

• Vanguard Wellington Fund
• TIAA-CREF Growth & Income Fund
• Wilshire 5000 Index Portfolio
• Vanguard LifeStrategy Growth Fund
• Masters' Select Equity Fund.

 

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