Diversions July 23, 2008

Calling Steve Bartman….

Boston Red Sox fans finally got to see their dreams come true (twice) – and the Chicago White Sox finally overcame their World Series jinx going back to the infamous Black Sox scandal of 1919.
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But the Chicago Cubs – well, they’re still waiting – and some folks think that 2003 could have been their year, but for the intervention of Steve Bartman.

Now Sportsbuy.com and the National Sports Collectors Convention are offering Steve Bartman a whopping $25,000 – and all he has to do is show up at their memorabilia show in Rosemont, Illinois on July 31 at 1 p.m. – prove his identity – and sign just one picture of his infamous 15 seconds of fame. Assuming Bartman shows – his autographed picture will be auctioned with the proceeds going to a Chicago-based charity.

“No one in sports memorabilia history has ever been paid $25,000 to sign one autograph — not Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, or any other athlete,’ said Mike Berkus, co-Executive Director of The National – who also notes that they have “personal security to provide to Steve at The National and to a destination of his choosing.’

If Bartman accepts the offer, he will vault into an autograph stratosphere of his own – well ahead of what some famous former athletes have gotten for a single autograph:

Who’s Steve Bartman?

Now, having said that, Steve Bartman is no Babe Ruth. His claim to fame came when he did what every one of us would hope to do at a Major League Baseball game – catch a fly ball. In Steve’s case, that fly foul ball looked (at least to him) like it had been hit out of play in the eighth inning of the sixth game of the 2003 National League Championship. A game that the Cubs led 3-0 in a series they led 3-2. They were, by some reckonings, just five outs from their first World Series appearance since 1945 – and maybe their first World Series championship since 1908. But that ball, which Steve may well have thought was out of play – to much of the rest of the world (certainly to those in the Windy City), looked playable by Cubs left fielder Moisés Alou.

But the umpires saw no interference, and the Cubs then watched the Florida Marlins score eight runs….SIX of them unearned…beating the Cubs 8-3 that night on their way to a come from behind NLCS victory (the next night Florida won the NLCS – after coming back from a 5-3 deficit) and then went on to defeat the New York Yankees in the World Series).

However, on that infamous October night, none other than Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich suggested that Steve Bartman join a witness protection program, while then-Florida governor Jeb Bush magnanimously offered him asylum. In the intervening years since the incident, Steve’s seat (Aisle 4, Row 8, Seat 113) has become a tourist attraction at Wrigley Field.

Bartman has, prudently no doubt, laid low since that infamous night – and the smart money probably is on a repeat non-appearance. The Cubs have unfortunately already begun their famous post-All Star Break “swoon” – but, for the moment, anyway, they are still in first place.

Maybe Cub fans will be in a forgiving mood.


MORE at http://www.nsccshow.com/

 

Data & Research July 23, 2008

Mutual Funds, Watch Your Backs

The latest Cerulli Edge U.S. Asset Management Edition suggests that while the demand for mutual funds remains strong, other solutions are gaining ground.
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Mutual funds industrywide gained nearly $1.5 trillion in assets in 2007, up from $1.3 trillion in 2006. However, during 2007 nearly half of all fund managers experienced net redemptions among their long-term funds, Cerulli said. While international/global equity funds garnered a record $177 billion in flows in 2007, aggregate flows into U.S. equity funds during the year (-$37 billion) were the lowest since 1988, according to the report.

The most popular of all mutual fund types in 2007 were funds of funds (FOFs), due to the continued demand for embedded-advice products. However, Cereulli pointed out the FOF segment is becoming crowded, and in order to survive, managers need compelling points of differentiation.

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Cerulli expects more mutual funds with international investment objectives and those that promise income-at-retirement solutions in 2008. According to the report, there were 130 new international/global funds launched last year. Additionally, several mutual funds promising predictable distributions for investors in retirement were launched in 2007, but most of these offer little more than complex systematic withdrawal options. Retiring investors need income-generating vehicles and they are comfortable with mutual funds, so it is difficult for them to think about decumulation over a 20- to 30-year period, Cerulli contended.

In addition, the products can be frightening, as many reserve the right to alter future distribution rates and merge or liquidate the funds at a certain point.

Alternatives to Mutual Funds

According to the Cerulli report, solutions giving mutual funds a run for their money include exchange-traded funds (ETFs), total retirement outsourcing (TRO) programs, and unified managed accounts (UMAs).

Low fees, intraday pricing, access to atypical indexes, and potential tax savings have always made ETFs attractive, and now that the first actively managed ETFs have been introduced, the product presents an increased threat to mutual funds, Cerulli contended. For ETFs to make further inroads and take additional market share from mutual funds, they must succeed with products that fit neatly onto retirement platforms, well-placed actively managed products, or embedded-advice products, according to the report.

As the provision of retirement services is an extremely low-margin business and is often unprofitable on a stand-alone basis, asset managers active in the TRO space view the market as a way to capture and retain assets. The majority of retirement plan recordkeepers operate their TRO businesses as a complement to other, more profitable lines of business, Cerulli noted.

UMAs and overlay portfolio management have become the industry standard for managed account offerings. The report pointed out that intense technological development over the past three years has enabled advisers to provide clients with customized portfolios consisting of multiple investment product types that all work together under one investment policy statement. Cerulli suggested, as UMA programs (which are powered by overlay management) grow, so will assets directed toward model-driven separate accounts, so now is the time for asset managers to harness what that means to their future business.


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