Separately Managed Accounts up in Q1

May 21, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Assets held in separately managed accounts were up 3.4% during the first quarter of 2002, according to a report by the Money Management Institute (MMI).

The MMI report said assets industry wide were $413.5 billion at the end of the first quarter, up from $399.8 billion at the end of 2001. MMI data comes from a survey of member firms with separately managed account businesses and with their portfolio managers.

MMI’s quarterly assets under management (AUM) figure is based on program totals reported by Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, UBS PaineWebber, Prudential, and Salomon Smith Barney – which collectively hold approximately 70% of the market. MMI also uses a host of smaller firms as a proxy for the remainder of the managed account business.

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The MMI account universe comprises portfolios managed on behalf of both individual investors and institutions working with financial advisors, and excludes assets brought directly to money managers as well as portfolios invested in mutual fund managed account programs.

Multiple discipline products are a key element of managed account industry growth, according to an analysis recently conducted by Kevin Keefe, vice president, Financial Research Corporation (FRC).

Multiple discipline products are accounts that employ a multi-manager methodology in bringing the benefits of the managed account approach to investors with assets beginning at approximately the $100,000 level. FRC projects that sales of MDP offerings will total about $26 billion in 2002, growing to $35 billion in 2003 and $46 billion in 2004.

In a forecast released in April, FRC projected that assets held in separately managed accounts would approach $1 trillion by the year 2005 and total nearly $3 trillion by the year 2011. The total number of individual accounts, estimated at 2 million in 2002, will increase to 4.2 million in 2005, 7.9 million in 2008, and 12.5 million in 2011.

Managed accounts are individual accounts offered by financial consultants utilizing a broad range of advisory services and are usually managed by professional, independent money managers using an asset-based fee structure.

Religious Speech Can Be Blocked By Religious Employers: Ca. High Court

May 20, 2002 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Religious employers have a right to terminate workers for "objectionable religious speech" in the workplace, according to a new ruling by the California Supreme Court.

In a unanimous ruling, the state’s high court tossed a lawsuit by an evangelical Christian who was fired from a Catholic medical foundation after he proselytized to other employees.

A Superior Court jury had awarded Silo damages and attorney fees – $6,305 in economic damages and $1 for emotional distress, while his lawyer was awarded $155,245 in attorney fees.  The state Court of Appeal upheld the awards on the grounds that the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act bars religious discrimination in the workplace.

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While secular employers can still be held liable for religious discrimination, religious employers need “considerable discretion to choose employees who will not interfere with their religious mission,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the court.

Soul “Survivor”

File clerk Terence Silo had “been counseled three times previously … regarding Soul Saving on clinic premises,” the Catholic nonprofit employer wrote in Silo’s termination papers, according to a report in the LA Times.

The Catholic Healthcare West Medical Foundation, which runs 42 hospitals in California, Nevada and Arizona, had hired Silo in July 1991 to work in its medical records department in Sacramento. More than a year later, Silo experienced a religious conversion.

In January 1993, already having received a poor performance evaluation, Silo was admonished by managers at the clinic who cited complaints from both coworkers and patients about Silo’s preaching on the premises.  A month later Silo was placed on probation and warned that he would lose his job unless he got more work done.

He was eventually fired in April, at which time the termination papers cited three incidents in which Silo had continued to “preach” and “Soul Save” despite warnings. Three of his co-workers had complained of harassment from his activities.

Silo denied the charges of harassment and claimed that the religious discussions had taken place during his lunch hour.

In its ruling, the California Supreme Court cautioned that it might rule another way if a religious employer were sued for sex discrimination.

Silo, now an evangelical Christian pastor, admitted that he was “on fire” and perhaps too exuberant about “sharing the good news” when he was first born again, according to his lawyer. 

See Also State Employees Can’t Preach on the Job

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