Daniel Glaser to be New Marsh CEO

Marsh&McLennan Companies (MMC) has tapped Daniel S. Glaser as the new chief executive officer for its Marsh insurance brokerage.

A Marsh news release said Glaser will relocate to MMC’s corporate headquarters in New York from his current London posting and will report to Michael G. Cherkasky, MMC President and Chief Executive Officer. Glaser replaces Brian Storms, who was ousted from the top spot at Marsh in September (See CEO Storms is Out at Marsh).

According to the announcement, Glaser is currently Managing Director of AIG Europe (U.K.) Limited and the Regional President of AIG’s American International Underwriters (AIU), UK/Ireland division. He joins Marsh on December 10, 2007.

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Glaser began his career in the insurance industry as a Marsh broker in 1982. He spent eight years at Willis, where he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Willis Risk Solutions, the large accounts practice. In 2000, he joined AIG as President of the Global Energy Division and, in 2002, was named Managing Director of AIG Europe (U.K.), AIU’s largest division.

“Dan has broad expertise in the insurance industry as well as first-hand knowledge of the Marsh organization,” said Cherkasky, in the announcement. “His perspectives as both a broker and an underwriter, coupled with his extensive international experience, make him the ideal candidate to take Marsh forward.”

In a statement in September announcing Storms’ departure, Cherkasky said that although Storms had made “important contributions” to Marsh’s recovery over the last two years, “we now need different leadership and operational skills to complete the successful transformation of Marsh.”

Storms, who joined MMC in 2004 from UBS Global Asset Management, became CEO of the brokerage unit in September 2005 after serving as President and CEO of Mercer.

Market Neutral Fund Shifts Into Gear

Vanguard has announced that shares of its Market Neutral Fund are now available.

The fund, a result of the recent reorganization of the Laudus Rosenberg U.S. Large/Mid Capitalization Long/Short Equity Fund (RMNIX) into the Vanguard Market Neutral Fund, is expected to appeal primarily to endowments, foundations, and other institutional investors.

The fund’s long/short market neutral investment strategy is an absolute return investment approach seeking performance that exceeds the returns of 3-month U.S. Treasury bills, according to a press release. Performance is driven by the managers’ ability to identify undervalued stocks to buy and overvalued stocks to sell short.

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AXA Rosenberg Investment Management LLC and Vanguard Quantitative Equity Group serve as investment advisors of the reorganized fund.

Vanguard Market Neutral Fund offers two share classes, Investor Shares (ticker: VMNFX) and Institutional Shares (ticker: VMNIX), which feature estimated expense ratios of 0.50% and 0.40%, respectively (according to a press release, these expense figures exclude an estimated 150 basis points of dividend expenses associated with the shorting strategy of long/short funds, which are expected to be offset by the interest earned on the short-sale proceeds combined with the fund’s other investment returns).

A 1% fee will be assessed on shares redeemed within one year of purchase. The fund requires a minimum initial investment of $250,000 for Investor Shares and $5 million for Institutional Shares.

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