MutualFundWire.com
The insiders' edge for 40 Act industry executives!
an InvestmentWires' Publication
an InvestmentWires' Publication
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MutualFundWire.com
The insiders' edge for 40 Act industry executives!
an InvestmentWires' Publication |
|
Friday, July 14, 2000 July 14, 2000 Lehman eyes SG Cowen unit From New York Post Lehman Brothers may buy SG Cowen's private client group as early as Monday after weeks of negotiations. Lehman would pick up 300 employees of SG Cowen's private client group, including 140 brokers who serve affluent individuals and pension fund clients. SG Cowen's Private Client Group controls $15 billion in assets. No price is being reported. Also not known is whether Arthur Stavaridis, who heads the private client unit would make the move to Lehman. Investors shrug off fees From Wall Street Journal Despite the brouhaha over fund expense ratios, the recent GAO report and Jack Bogle's ubiquity, most investors don't care too much about fees -- and the fund industry already knows this. Today's Journal, then, states the obvious: "Everyone seems to be making a fuss over the fees that mutual funds charge investors. Everyone but investors, that is." The article points out that the top 10 selling funds this year sport an average annual expense ratio of 93 basis points compared to 79 bps. last year and 0.73 bps. in 1998. Strikingly, not one of the ten bestsellers was a Vanguard sponsored fund. Even Vanguard's John Brennan is quoted as saying that low expenses help Vanguard's sales by assisting the funds' long-term returns. Investors are "not shopping on price," he says. Fidelity, Vanguard square off From Boston Globe How much are investors paying each year in Federal taxes through their funds? Fidelity Investments thinks funds should be required to disclose after-tax returns only in the tax section of a prospectus, not in annual reports to shareholders on fund performance. The Vanguard Group, on the other hand, believes investors should get the information in a prospectus, in annual reports, and in advertising and supplemental sales literature investors see. What's a regulator to do? Both companies are commenting on the March 15 proposal. The SEC's rule would require funds to publish a table showing investors how much tax they might pay under those scenarios. SEC Workers Unite! From Wall Street Journal Workers of Securities and Exchange Commission voted to unionize and join the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents 155,000 workers in more than two dozen agencies. The union will include 1,245 professional staff and 655 nonprofessionals, mostly administrative and technical staff. The unionization comes at the same time that the Senate is considering a bill to raise compensation at the SEC after Chairman Arthur Levitt pointed out that the agency employees are underpaid and have higher turnover than other government agencies. Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=26020 Copyright 2000, InvestmentWires, Inc. All Rights Reserved |