Fund Managers

Two college savings plans managed by T. Rowe Price rank among the best in the country - the eighth time that the Baltimore-based investment firm has been included in Morningstar's annual survey of top plans. Only once - the year after the 2008 market crash - has a Price-managed plan not made the list since Morningstar began ranking so-called 529 plans in 2004. "They have been an industry leader for a long time," said Laura Pavlenko Lutton, head of Morningstar's 529 plan research.

T. Rowe Price lost another one of its fund managers, the third this year. Friday was the last day for Joseph M. Milano, 40, who has been the manager of Price's New America Growth Fund since 2002, said spokesman Brian Lewbart. Milano, who joined the Baltimore-based money manager in 1996 as an associate analyst, only recently informed Price of his plans to leave. "He let us know he was leaving the firm to pursue other investment management opportunities, most likely on his own," Lewbart said.

T. Rowe Price lost another one of its fund managers, the third this year. Friday was the last day for Joseph M. Milano, 40, who has been the manager of Price's New America Growth Fund since 2002, said spokesman Brian Lewbart. Milano, who joined the Baltimore-based money manager in 1996 as an associate analyst, only recently informed Price of his plans to leave. "He let us know he was leaving the firm to pursue other investment management opportunities, most likely on his own," Lewbart said.

An audit of Maryland's video lottery terminal program has found that the state has not yet implemented a way to direct proceeds to the state's small business community, as directed by a 2008 law. The Board of Public Works has accumulated the funds, which now total $2.6 million, for several years. The report Thursday from the Office of Legislative Audits found that, while the funds in the account for small and minority- and women-owned businesses have been properly collected and accounted for, the Board of Public Works has not disbursed any as capital investments or loans.

The stock market was approaching a cyclical low in September 1990 when Will Danoff, manager of the tiny Fidelity Select Retailing Portfolio and an assistant to Magellan Fund manager Peter Lynch, was promoted to run the $287 million Fidelity Contrafund.In succeeding Jeff Vinik, Mr. Danoff took on one of Fidelity's oldest and best-performing equity funds -- one characterized by a contrarian investment policy. His predecessors had achieved an average annual total return of 15.8 percent for the prior five years, ranking Contrafund 12th among 172 growth funds monitored by Lipper Analytical Services.

NEW YORK -- Major institutional fund managers seem to favor European bond markets and the American dollar right now, according to a new quarterly survey by Merrill Lynch. The American bond market, with its uncertain outlook ahead, gets just a neutral nod.The Merrill Lynch survey shows that a lot of big fund managers still hope to take advantage of the capital gains possible in European bonds as prices rise with the decline in interest rates.Yet, at the same time, they are worried enough about a rising dollar erasing their profits from abroad that they are trying to hedge this risk by loading up on dollars now.Michael Rosenberg, of Merrill Lynch, said the survey also indicated that the dollar might be in line for a temporary fall because so many fund managers had bought the dollars they need.

Listening to fund managers at a recent Morningstar Mutual Fund conference in Chicago made one realize that if mutual fund shareholders acted like mutual fund managers, the industry would be in trouble.Managers, and almost everyone else, constantly remind shareholders they should invest for the long term. But most fund managers don't do that. Buy-and-hold, it seems, is to be practiced by investors, some financial planners, a few funds and Warren Buffett. But the average turnover rate for stock mutual funds is 80 percent to 90 percent a year, which costs shareholders money in the form of higher expenses and, often, higher capital gains distributions, which can cost shareholders more in taxes.

The cut in the capital-gains tax will widen the gap between ordinary income and long-term capital gains, but will that matter to mutual-fund managers who rarely take tax efficiency into account?Probably not.Fund managers say they need the freedom to sell whatever assets they want, whenever they want. They had been somewhat constrained by a 61-year-old federal rule that required mutual funds to hold 30 percent of their shares for at least 90 days.But that rule was eliminated in the budget bill, which only enhances the managers' ability to make even more short-term trades.

Some people compare them to research scientists, others to riverboat gamblers.But in fact, mutual fund managers are a lot like the judges of a beauty contest, picking the stocks they think are Most Attractive and Most Likely to Succeed.If an award were given for Miss Popularity, the winner right now would be (the envelope, please) General Electric. That's the stock that shows up in the most portfolios of general stock funds, according to Morningstar Inc., which found GE in almost 30 percent of such funds.

AT THE Morningstar Investors Conference here recently, it was painfully clear that fund managers, to borrow from F. Scott Fitzgerald, are "different from you and me." Fund investors and other ordinary folks are trying to protect and grow their money in funds. But far too often, we tend to think of the manager running our money as one of us, the captain of our little ship of investors, steering the collective investment pool for our benefit. But we buy funds; they buy stocks or bonds. Furthermore, fund managers participate differently in our little group, not only because they have power but in the way they profit from the use of that power.

Two college savings plans managed by T. Rowe Price rank among the best in the country - the eighth time that the Baltimore-based investment firm has been included in Morningstar's annual survey of top plans. Only once - the year after the 2008 market crash - has a Price-managed plan not made the list since Morningstar began ranking so-called 529 plans in 2004. "They have been an industry leader for a long time," said Laura Pavlenko Lutton, head of Morningstar's 529 plan research.

With all the upheaval in the eurozone and the promise of more to come, what's an investor to do? Kick anything vaguely European out of the 401(k)? Baltimore money managers T. Rowe Price and Legg Mason say they both have relatively low levels of exposure to the eurozone: 4 percent of assets under management at Price, 5 percent at Legg. But they haven't pulled back in a big way from the region, which is struggling — to varying degrees, depending on the country — with debt and fears of a sharp recession.

New York investor Nelson Peltz has acquired a bigger share of Baltimore-based Legg Mason Inc., buying 2.65 million shares of the Baltimore money manager for $76.5 million between Aug. 1 and Aug. 3, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows. The Baltimore Business Journal first reported the news. Peltz's New York-based Trian Fund Management LP is the company's biggest shareholder, with 13.9 million shares, or 9.4 percent, after this week's purchases. Peltz, a Legg Mason director, began buying shares in 2009.

NEW YORK - Two former Bear Stearns hedge fund managers were found not guilty of fraud, a decision that could make government prosecutors less likely to bring criminal charges against Wall Street executives for their role in the financial crisis. The case - the first major prosecution arising from the meltdown of major U.S. financial institutions - was seen as a test of whether a jury, presented with evidence from e-mails and other communications, would convict individuals for corporate collapses.

Legg Mason Inc. will introduce tomorrow a re-branding of its namesake mutual funds meant to improve their marketability and visibility as the Baltimore money manager rebounds from its poor performance amid last year's financial sector meltdown. Most Legg Mason and Legg Mason Partners retail and institutional funds will be known under a common naming convention: The Legg Mason brand followed by the name of the investment manager and fund strategy. For example, the company's most well-known product - the Legg Mason Value Trust - will be renamed Legg Mason Capital Management Value Trust to reflect the fund manager, Legg Mason Capital Management, based in Baltimore.

Hedge-fund selling is a huge culprit in this fall's stock market decline, and everybody wants to know when it'll be over. Reports are mixed. "The bad news is in for hedge fund managers," reports Pensions & Investments. "Come Dec. 31, many could lose up to one-quarter of their assets if investors indeed take back all that they've requested." Investment strategist Ed Yardeni is optimistic. "I don't know," he says in a letter to clients who ask when the hedge-fund hemorrhage will end. "But I suspect the bulk of their selling is over, and that redemption gates have been closed when possible."

THE QUESTION I get asked most often is, "Who are your favorite fund managers?" The glib, stock answer is, "Whoever is making money." The truth, however, is that some managers not only make money, but they also bring perspective and history to their job and are fun to talk with. In general, these managers are the long-timers, the ones who have lived with being out of sync with the market and had their share of humbling moments on the road to success. They are worth listening to. Ralph Wanger is one of those managers.

Since the Securities and Exchange Commission decided to require disclosure of fund company proxy votes this year, it's time to get down to the good stuff. Proxy disclosure is an entitlement of shareholders, but there are more important things that will directly affect fund investors' bottom lines. Today, I'd like to discuss an important matter that I hope the SEC will roll up its sleeves and get to work on - namely, manager-incentive disclosure. Of course, the fund industry could get ahead of this issue so the SEC doesn't have to act. For instance, had the Investment Company Institute, the mutual fund industry trade group, come out with its proxy disclosure proposal soon after the Enron debacle, I doubt the SEC would have adopted its more comprehensive rules.

It's a star-studded cast in mutual funds - and also a shocking flop on this year's complex investing stage. With the financial crisis playing out in ways many professionals failed to predict, and oil also surprising, some of the best and brightest of the fund business have turned into the biggest losers of the year. They include exalted names such as Bill Miller of Baltimore-based Legg Mason Value fund, Martin Whitman of Third Avenue Value fund, David Dreman of DWS Dreman High Return, Wally Weitz of Weitz Value, Mason Hawkins and Staley Cates of the Longleaf Partners team, Christopher Davis and Kenneth Feinberg of Davis New York Venture, and the team that manages American Funds Amcap fund.