Top of the Agenda - Governance

BNY Mellon ETFs planned for 2020, oversight TBD

By Hillary Jackson

BNY Mellon is planning to launch broad-indexed equity and fixed-income exchange-traded funds in 2020 and has yet to name a board to oversee the funds. In an October filing for the eight ETFs, the adviser listed only a single interested board member, Jeff Prusnofsky, a vice president and senior managing ... >> CONTINUE READING <<<

GSAM board to add two new independents

By Hillary Jackson

A board overseeing two Goldman Sachs Asset Management trusts is asking shareholders to approve two new independent directors, boosting the number around the table up to eight. The board has been chaired by Jessica Palmer for nearly two years and is the oldest of GSAM's five fund boards.

The board, which ... >> CONTINUE READING <<<

Legg Mason to consolidate WAMCO fund boards

By Hillary Jackson

Legg Mason is planning to consolidate two of the six boards that oversee its roughly 150 U.S. mutual funds and reduce the number of independent directors in its boardrooms. A proposal to be voted on by shareholders next month involves the two boards that oversee funds advised by Legg Mason ... >> CONTINUE READING <<<

Former PIMCO Funds director Popejoy has died

William Popejoy, who served on the PIMCO Funds board as an independent director for more than 20 years, died Saturday from complications related to Parkinson's disease, according to an article published Monday in The Orange County Register. He was 81.

Popejoy, who lived in Newport Beach, Calif., stepped off the PIMCO ... >> CONTINUE READING <<<

New ETF rule on boards' agendas this fall

By Hillary Jackson

Boards overseeing exchange-traded funds are likely to allocate time this fall to reviewing a new exchange-traded funds rule adopted last week by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rule 6c-11, designed to streamline the process of bringing ETFs to market, is being viewed as a leveling of the playing field among ... >> CONTINUE READING <<<

Deloitte: Funds slow to embrace tech in valuation, cite challenges

By Hillary Jackson

Investment managers have been slow to fully embrace the use of technologies in their valuation process, even as they continue to explore doing so, according to new data from Deloitte. Among the "headwinds" faced by these managers are development and implementation costs, lack of technological expertise, and the potential to ... >> CONTINUE READING <<<