The Senate Republican Retirement Task Force today unveiled the first piece of a pension package. The bill will let homemakers set aside $2,000 a year in tax-deductible IRAs; let those returning to work from maternity or paternity leave make catch-up payments to their retirement plans, and let those who quit the workforce to rear children make up to 18 years of payments to their retirement plans after they return to work.
The bill is sponsored by 16 Republican senators, including Majority Leader Trent Lott, Mississippi; Senate Finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth, Delaware; Jim Jeffords, Vermont; and Judd Gregg, New Hampshire.
The PBGC will take over the Memorex-Telex Corp. pension plan. The company was sold to various companies in bankruptcy liquidation. None of the purchasers plans to continue the pension plan, which has assets of $55.9 million and liabilities of $82.4 million, and covers nearly 4,000 workers and pensioners. The company froze the pension plan in 1994 and terminated it Dec. 31. The Irving, Texas, company closed its doors March 31.
Ohio State Highway Patrol Retirement System is searching for managers in real estate and active international equities, said R. Dean Huffman, executive director.
The $512 million system could allocate $10 million to $15 million to real estate and $25 million to international. DeMarche Associates is assisting. A decision is expected in late June.
In real estate, the Columbus-based system is considering separate and commingled funds; funding could come from cash flow. Funding for the international manager could come from cash flow and reducing a $25 million international index fund, run by ANB Investment.
Michael F. Price yesterday said he would temporarily close any of the five mutual funds he manages for Franklin Templeton Distributors if inflows push cash positions up into the high 20% range. He said the funds tend to hold cash in a range from 5% to 20%. His largest fund, the roughly $6 billion Mutual Shares Fund, now has a 20% cash position. He has temporarily closed Mutual Shares three times since its inception.
Hoenig Group, parent of Axe-Houghton Associates, saw a 30% increase in asset management revenue in the first quarter, helping it increase first-quarter revenue 13.4%.
Total operating revenue for the quarter rose to $17.91 million from $15.79 million for the same period in 1996. The company's investment management fee revenue increased 30.1% to $1.5 million during the first quarter, compared to $1.2 million a year earlier.
At least 16 new indexes were created in the first quarter, according to Henry Shilling, a consultant at Performance Analytics. Three indexes cover bonds, 11 cover stocks and two are money market indexes.
Two new equity indexes replaced existing benchmarks. The AMEX Composite Index, calculated on a price-only basis, replaced the total return AMEX MVI. The Price Index of Ecuador, which is market-value weighted, replaces the IAQ index. The new benchmark expands the number of representative index constituents and changes selection criteria to take into consideration trading volume and liquidity.
J.P. Morgan Investment Management introduced a new no-load institutional mutual fund, the JPM Institutional Global Strategic Income Fund. The fund will invest beyond traditional money market and fixed-income securities in non-dollar-denominated securities, non-securitized mortgages, corporate private placements, emerging market debt and high-yield corporate bonds.
