Boston played host to the
MutualFundWire 2011 Influencers Summit: See 2020 this week.
Speakers and attendees alike buzzed about the implications of
Touchstone's planned purchase of
Old Mutual's $2 billion U.S. mutual fund family, which was unveiled Tuesday. And at least one fundster hinted at the
Hartford recently aborted efforts to sell its mutual fund business, which use Wellington and another arm of the Hartford as subadvisors.
When It Comes to B-Ds, 'Align With the Expected Winners, in the Consolidation Trend'
Sanjiv Mirchandani, president of
Fidelity's giant clearing and broker-dealer support arm,
National Financial, wowed attendees Tuesday afternoon with an in-depth look at the state of the B-D and investor worlds.
"We're seeing lots of restructuring, culling, looking at strategic options, efficiency cost plays," Mirchandani said, pointing to the "wave of regulation that's coming."
"It's only going to increase the pressure on profit margins and the minimum required scale to operate a broker-dealer," he added. "You want to align with the expected winners in the consolidation trends ... And think of your product development as how you can help the 'new normal' investor."
Fundsters 'Still Have a Lot to Do' in Terms of Marketing
On a Wednesday afternoon panel led by
Wechsler Ross & Partners Dan Ross and alongside
Christy White of
Cogent Research and
Stephen Ban of
Nuveen,
JPMorgan's
Richard Chambers warned attendees that "from a marketing perspective, we still have an awful lot to do as an industry."
"You have to stand for something," Chambers said, pointing to the success of
Vanguard's emphasis on low-cost efficiency. "There has to be a belief, an organizing principle."
"To be really successful as a brand, you have to live that throughout the organization," Ban agreed, "Build an organization that's all about the brand."
"Performance becomes the table stakes," White added. "At some point in time, you have to differentiate yourself."
MutualFundWire On My Mind
A bullish
Bob Reynolds, president of
Putnam Investments[see profile], on Wednesday shared an optimistic view of where he sees the US going in the next 10 years in terms of the capital markets, demographics and the
"race to solvency.".
However, Reynolds began his speech noting that he started his career at
Fidelity[see profile] in 1984, at the same time
Sean Hanna, publisher, president and editor-in-chief of
MFWire.com, began his journalism career. An attendee on the sideline noted that this was Reynold's third difference speech at three different venues within the same week. Kudos to Reynolds and Putnam's speech writing team!
In a session on Tuesday,
Avi Nachmany, director of research at
Strategic Insight, chided Hanna for "believing what you write," referring to Hannah's comments about
Pimco's [see profile] advancement into the equities market, leading to a few loud chuckles from the audience.
And
Morningstar founder
Joe Mansueto, took the stage on Wednesday to accept his MFWire Innovator award. Mansueto noted
MFWire's leading place among mutual funds pubs and data source and said that he'll be back to attend next year's summit.
Some Star-Driven Shops Still Blaze Brightly
Speaking Wednesday morning on a panel with
Calamos Investments chief
John Calamos,
DoubleLine Funds chief
Ron Redell pushed back against the notion that 'the star manager is dead'.
"It helps to have a star manager ... Investors, they want a Tom Brady running their portfolio," Redell told conferees. (Redell's firm launched in December 2009 and now has $17 billion in assets under management, including $13 billion in its mutual funds.) "Performance is important, but I think what investors are looking for is leadership. The light in the lighthouse is insight during those storms."
Calamos, who has built his firm into a $37-billion AUM, 340-person, publicly traded asset manager, warned attendees that nothing in this business stays the same for long.
"The business continues to change. You always find those people that think it's not going to change," Calamos said. "A business is like riding a bike uphill -- if you stop peddling, you're going the wrong way."
Neil Anderson contributed to this article. 
Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE