The Fund Industry


Book Description

A guide to how your money is managed, with foreword by Nobel laureate Robert Shiller The Fund Industry offers a comprehensive look at mutual funds and the investment management industry, for fund investors, those working in the fund industry, service providers to the industry and students of financial institutions or capital markets. Industry experts Robert Pozen and Theresa Hamacher take readers on a tour of the business of asset management. Readers will learn how to research a fund and assess whether it's right for them; then they'll go behind the scenes to see how funds are invested, sold and regulated. This updated edition expands coverage of the segments of the industry where growth is hottest, including hedge funds, liquid alternatives, ETFs and target date funds—and adds an introduction to derivatives. Mutual funds are a key component of financial planning for 96 million Americans. Nearly a quarter of U.S. household savings are invested in funds, which give individual investors affordable access to professional management. This book provides a detailed look at how firms in the industry: Invest those savings in stocks and bonds Evaluate the risks and returns of funds Distribute funds directly to consumers or through financial advisors or retirement plans Handle the complex operational and regulatory requirements of mutual funds Vote proxies at the annual meetings of public companies Expand their operations across borders Along the way, the authors describe the latest trends and discuss the biggest controversies—all in straightforward and engaging prose. The Fund Industry is the essential guide to navigating the mutual fund industry.




The Fund


Book Description

Investigating a suspicious international money trail only to discover a horrifying financial terrorist plot, U.S. Defense Intelligence operative Kate Molares travels to strategic places throughout the world in a race to prevent an unprecedented economic catastrophe.




When the Fund Stops


Book Description

Neil Woodford was the UK’s most celebrated fund manager. Savers who invested £1,000 with him in 1988 saw their money increase to £25,000 over 25 years. At the peak of his career he was managing £33 billion for hundreds of thousands of investors. When he started his own fund management company in 2014, within just a few weeks it had attracted £5bn from his loyal fan base, including some of the City of London’s biggest hitters. Life was good. Away from work he was collecting high-performance supercars and chunky designer watches; he was rarely out of the saddle of his favourite horse. The BBC called him the “man who can’t stop making money”. And then it all came to a sudden stop. This book tells the dramatic untold story behind Woodford’s stunning rise and fall, and reveals why his multi-billion-pound investment empire really collapsed in such an abrupt and catastrophic manner. In a fast-moving and compelling narrative, reporter David Ricketts takes readers inside the rooms where extraordinary sums of other people’s money were wagered, trapped and, ultimately, lost, in a scandal still sending shockwaves through the world of finance. Thanks to unique and unprecedented access to the most important players, we meet an eccentric cast of characters and go inside the institutions involved, from Woodford’s own firm to those that made huge sums endorsing him – as well as those who failed to raise the alarm before it was too late.




Empire of the Fund


Book Description

Empire of the Fund is an exposé of the way we save now with proposals to fix it. The United States has embarked upon the riskiest experiment in our financial history: to see whether millions of ordinary, untrained citizens can successfully manage trillions of dollars in a system dominated by skilled and powerful financial institutions.




Fund Raising


Book Description

"Proper application of the fund development process can define anorganization's potential for public support and the direct means toachieve it, and can realize, even predict with reliability, theincome an organization can and should expect at any moment intime."--James M. Greenfield. As the driving force behind every not-for-profit, fund raising is akey to an organization's success in fulfilling its mission.However, while it's important to develop the skills needed to raisemoney, it's equally important to know how to allocate it properlyin order to meet your goals. Now revised and expanded, thispractical resource provides an accessible game plan for not onlyraising funds, but also developing them effectively for increasedproductivity and profitability. Written by James M. Greenfield, a leading authority in the field,Fund Raising takes you step-by-step through the entire funddevelopment process, from planning and marketing to communityrelations and donor management. Beginning with an examination ofphilanthropic history and perspective, it goes on to describe theindividual elements of the development process, as well as theorganizational requirements needed for the process to work. Withdetail and clarity, Greenfield covers such essential bases as theevaluation of program effectiveness, policies and procedures forpublic solicitation, the fund raising environmental audit, matchinggift programs, donor recognition, special projects campaigns, andmuch more. Threaded throughout the book is the theme of "friendraising and relationship building," both vital components ofincreasing capability and capacity to address the needs of today,with an eye toward those of tomorrow. Along with an added, in-depth discussion of ethics, the SecondEdition introduces new best practices that have developed over thepast few years, and features updated data, useful worksheets, suchas economic statistics, demographics, and reports from the AmericanAssociation of Fund-Raising Council. Packed with numerous examples,case studies, and checklists, this exhaustive resource is essentialreading for anyone looking to achieve--and maintain--fund-raisingsuccess. "There is the current need for a better understanding of how thefund development process can best be utilized and improved so thatcommunity benefits can be realized with adequate funding. This bookis intended to be a contribution to that end." --from thePreface Now revised and expanded, this practical resource takes you throughthe entire fund development process, giving you the master plannecessary for realizing the full fund-raising potential of yournonprofit organization. Covering everything from accountability andstewardship to public solicitation and donor relations, the SecondEdition has been updated to include the latest economic figures,demographics, and reports from the American Association ofFund-Raising Council, as well as an added, in-depth discussion ofethics, worksheets for performance analysis, and new best practicesthat have developed over the past few years. Jacket Design: Andrew Liefer




The Hedge Fund Mirage


Book Description

The dismal truth about hedge funds and how investors can get a greater share of the profits Shocking but true: if all the money that's ever been invested in hedge funds had been in treasury bills, the results would have been twice as good. Although hedge fund managers have earned some great fortunes, investors as a group have done quite poorly, particularly in recent years. Plagued by high fees, complex legal structures, poor disclosure, and return chasing, investors confront surprisingly meager results. Drawing on an insider's view of industry growth during the 1990s, a time when hedge fund investors did well in part because there were relatively few of them, The Hedge Fund Mirage chronicles the early days of hedge fund investing before institutions got into the game and goes on to describe the seeding business, a specialized area in which investors provide venture capital-type funding to promising but undiscovered hedge funds. Today's investors need to do better, and this book highlights the many subtle and not-so-subtle ways that the returns and risks are biased in favor of the hedge fund manager, and how investors and allocators can redress the imbalance. The surprising frequency of fraud, highlighted with several examples that the author was able to avoid through solid due diligence, industry contacts, and some luck Why new and emerging hedge fund managers are where generally better returns are to be found, because most capital invested is steered towards apparently safer but less profitable large, established funds rather than smaller managers that evoke the more profitable 1990s Hedge fund investors have had it hard in recent years, but The Hedge Fund Mirage is here to change that, by turning the tables on conventional wisdom and putting the hedge fund investor back on top.




The Great Mutual Fund Trap


Book Description

Drawing on years of experience, two financial experts warn investors of the potential financial hazards of mutual funds, discussing the hidden costs of such funds, providing realistic insights into how such funds operate, and offering helpful advice on how to protect one's investments.




Fundamentals of Fund Administration


Book Description

Fundamentals of Fund Administration fills a gap in the lack of books that cover the administration and operations functions related to funds. With the growth of hedge funds globally there is more and more requirement for fund administration services, and the success of the fund administration is crucial to the success of the funds themselves in a highly competitive market. As the focus on operational risk, cost effective support and administration of trading and investment and the ability to design, develop and deliver added-value services for clients grows there is a need for a comprehensive analysis of what happens from trade to settlement and beyond and the exact role that the fund administrator may be required to provide. The book helps those responsible for managing and supervising fund administration services by examining the decisions, actions and problems at the various stages as well as explaining the products and infrastructure that services support. - Concise, easy to read format explains extensive and complicated procedures with lively, easy to follow road maps - Comprehensive reference work with extensive glossary of terms, useful website addresses and further reading recommendations - Covers all the major stages with detailed explanations of what is required for effective completion and regulatory compliance




Empire of the Fund


Book Description

Empire of the Fund is an exposé and examination of the way we save now. With the rise of the 401(k) and demise of the pension, the United States has embarked upon the richest and riskiest experiment in our financial history. Over the next twenty years, nearly eighty million baby boomers will retire at a pace of ten thousand per day. The hypothesis of our experiment is that millions of ordinary, untrained, busy citizens can successfully manage trillions of dollars in a financial system dominated by wealthy, skilled, and powerful financial institutions, many of which have a record of treating individual investors shabbily. The key tools in our 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts are mutual funds, which have ballooned to hold more than $16 trillion. But these funds pose dangers to our savings in three ways: through structural vulnerabilities that give money managers the incentive to focus on marketing over investing; through the very human challenges of managing our savings decades into the future; and through the peril of financial professionals behaving badly, to our economic harm. Though Americans often hear of the importance of low fees in fund investing, few are aware of the astonishing panoply of ways that some financial advisers have illegally diverted money out of mutual funds: from abetting hedge funds to trade after the legal deadline, to inflating the assets on which they are paid a percentage, to paying kickbacks for brokers to sell their funds. This book will forewarn and forearm Americans by illustrating the structural flaws, perverse incentives, and litany of scandals that have bedeviled mutual funds. And by setting forth a pair of policy solutions to improve Americans' financial literacy and bargaining power, it will also attempt to safeguard our individual financial destinies and our nation's fiscal strength.




Index Funds


Book Description

The financial services industry has a dark secret, one that costs global investors about $2.5 trillion per year. This secret quietly drains the investment portfolios and retirement accounts of almost every investor. In 1900, French mathematician, Louis Bachelier, unsuspectingly revealed this disturbing fact to the world. Since then, hundreds of academic studies have supported Bachelier's findings. This book offers overwhelming proof of this, and shows investors how to obtain their optimal rate of return by matching their risk capacity to an appropriate risk exposure. A globally diversified portfolio of index funds is the optimal way to accomplish this. Index Funds is the treatment of choice for wayward investors. Below market returns in investment portfolios and pension accounts are the result of investors gambling with their hard earned money. This 12-Step Program will put active investors on the road to recovery. Each step is designed to bring investors closer to embracing a prudent and sound strategy of buying, holding, and rebalancing an index portfolio.




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