The collapse of Lehman Brothers didn’t just take down the whole investment banking model of Wall Street; it also put the squeeze on a significant number of other investments, including principal-protected notes and hedge funds. Lehman’s PPNs, while notionally powered by various stock indexes, were actually senior unsecured obligations for a company now in bankruptcy. […]
Other World Views this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | A joint Aon Consulting/Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists survey finds that 45% of American employers now have consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs), up from 37% last year. Of those companies surveyed with CDHPs, the goals for having them range from […]
Forty-year veteran Jean-Guy Desjardins brings a scientific approach to investment management. Jean-Guy Desjardins had a dream. The 64-year-old chief executive officer and board chair of Fiera Capital Inc. wanted to be the president of a holding company. “In the 1960s, the big thing was conglomerates,” he says. “[But] we all know what happened with that.” […]
Volatile markets have taken their toll on the Top 40 Money Managers of 2008. But they recognize that this crisis, too, will pass. This Top 40 Money Managers Report is looking a little off-colour, as ailing markets and the resulting roller-coaster ride of volatility have spread to the money management industry as well. As the […]
The global credit crisis has hit Wall Street hard in the past 24 hours: Lehman Brothers has filed for bankruptcy protection, Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America, and the State of New York has allowed AIG to borrow US$20 billion from its subsidiaries to fund day-to-day operations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | Canadians will contribute $20 billion to tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) next year and the market will mushroom to $115 billion by 2013, says a CIBC World Markets report. “The 2008 federal budget gave birth to arguably the most dramatic change in […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | Canada’s slowing economy is colliding with the war for talent to push the national average forecast for base salaries up by 3.7% for 2009, according to a survey. The Hay Group survey of Canadian employers revealed that while the national average […]
Briefly: “Money Managers Perform Better in Q2” and More of Wednesday’s News July 30, 2008 | Staff Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | According to Russell Investments, the investing environment was better for active managers overall in the second quarter of 2008 with 41% beating the benchmark—up […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | American companies are taking decisive actions to make defined contribution plan participation as easy as possible for employees, according to a survey. The 2008 401(k) Benchmarking survey—conducted by Deloitte, the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans and the International Society of […]
Other Brieflies this week:| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | A survey by The Hartford Financial Services Group and the MIT AgeLab finds that American women worry a lot more about many aspects of retirement than men. Results show that women are well aware of the specific retirement risks they face […]