AT THE BELL

Heads tale: Planner chief picked

Roy Diliberto won the coin toss in Atlanta to become first president of the Financial Planning Association when the International Association for Financial Planning and the Institute of Certified Financial Planners merge next year. Mr. Diliberto, IAFP president-elect, is also president of RTD Financial Advisors Inc. of Philadelphia. Institute president Guy Cumbie, president of Cumbie Advisory Services in Fort Worth, Texas, is scheduled to take the reins in 2001. In the organization’s first year, its board will include all 22 members of the predecessor organizations’ boards.

Brokers to raise tech spending

Technology investments will account for 37%, or $24.2 billion, of the brokerage industry’s year 2002 budgets — vs. 3% in 1996, predicts the Securities Industry Association. Total technology budgets soared from $11.5 billion in 1996 to $18.4 billion last year. The Washington trade group says that in the next millennium 50% of retail orders will be conducted via the Internet. Last year 20% of orders were conducted electronically. The survey, conducted by the Tower Group in Needham, Mass., looked at 250 companies, including eight of the biggest dozen, which represent 30% of the securities industry.

Easier bond prices gets vote

The Securities and Exchange Commission would issue rules to foster better public disclosure of bond prices under a bill passed 332 to 1 by the House of Representatives. The bill is supported by the SEC, the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Bond Market Association, which has begun its own Internet system that shows prices for investment-grade corporate bonds. The Senate Banking Committee has not acted yet.

Broker gives up fund biz

New York brokerage Fahnestock & Co. is getting out of the mutual fund business, InvestmentNews sister publication Crain’s New York Business reports. Fahnestock is perhaps best known for its David Bowie bonds, tied to the rock singer’s future revenue stream. Its $30 million Hudson Capital Appreciation Fund is going to Ivy Management Inc., a Florida mutual fund company, which is expected to merge Hudson with its Emerging Growth Fund. Officials at Fahnestock, a subsidiary of Fahnestock Viner Holdings in Toronto, did not return a call.

Businesses against estate taxes

Lobbyists for eight industries, including supermarkets and broadcasters, united to back legislation sponsored by Reps. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., and John Tanner, D-Tenn., which would phase out estate taxes by 2010. The group says the tax destroys jobs as businesses are sold to pay estate taxes, and that the tax contributes less than 1.5% of the federal budget anyway. Expect a national advertising campaign.

Etc.: Block opening centers

By year’s end, H&R Block Group Inc. plans to open 70 financial centers that bring tax preparation, mortgage origination and financial planning under one roof. The Kansas City, Mo., Form 1040 expert expects the rollout to crimp earnings in 2000. Pilot centers operate in Columbus, Ohio, Cincinnati, Phoenix and Miami. . . American Express Financial Corp. funds shareholders approved changing the names of the IDS mutual funds and variable annuity funds to American Express funds and American Express Variable. They also voted to add performance-based fees to five funds. . . Fueled by a spike in commission revenues, St. Louis brokerage A.G. Edwards Inc.’s first-quarter earnings were $85 million on revenues of $651 million, an 11.8% jump over the previous period.

Correction

A May 17 story on SunAmerica Inc.’s securities unit bankrolling independent advisers who acquire other planners’ shops misstated one of the terms of a recent financing agreement in Wisconsin. The story reported that SunAmerica would forgive half of an acquirer’s below-market-rate loan if he meets minimum sales targets of all Sun America products. The story should have stated all Sun America-approved products.