At the Bell

Senate panel set

to vote SEC fee cut

* The Senate Banking Committee this week is likely to approve legislation that would save investors $8 billion over five years by reducing fees collected by the Securities and Exchange Commission on registrations and transactions (See story, Page 16).

The bill, scheduled for a vote by the committee Thursday, is strongly supported by most Democrats on the committee, as well as Republicans. The legislation appears likely to be enacted this year.

Lazard Asset hires

trio from Morgan

* Lazard Asset Management of New York has expanded its alternative-investment group with the hiring of Christian Frei, Christopher Boyatt and Chris Heasman. They will be involved in the research and development of alternative investments, including funds-of-funds strategies and alternative-investment due diligence platforms.

All three previously held posts at J.P. Morgan Investment Management’s hedge fund group in New York.

Mr. Frei was chief investment officer of the group. Mr. Boyatt was head of research and led portfolio management for the group’s Multi-Manager Strategies Funds. Mr. Heasman led the development and portfolio management of structured hedge fund products.

Wells Fargo lures

large-cap manager

* The Palley in Palley-Needelman Asset Management Inc. is hitching on to the Wells Fargo stagecoach.

Wells Fargo & Co. of San Francisco, the nation’s seventh-largest bank, has hired Roger B. Palley away from the Newport Beach, Calif., company he co-founded to head the large-cap value team in the private-client-services division.

Mr. Palley recently worked as a value portfolio consultant to Wells Fargo and was recruited to stay on, says Scott Benner, senior director of investments at Wells Fargo.

The bank’s private client services division manages $57.6 billion for high-net-worth clients.

Mr. Palley, who has been in the investment management business since 1964, started his own large-cap-value business in 1985 with a partner, Chet Needelman.

People called blind

to financial reality

* A survey for the Northwestern Mutual Financial Network suggests that Americans are fooling themselves about the security of their financial futures.

More than 79% of the respondents were somewhat comfortable with the amount of planning and preparation they had done for their futures.

However, one-fifth of respondents reported that more that 75% of their monthly income was immediately spent each month.

“One of the most interesting things that came out of the survey is that people are overly optimistic. They are actually living in a financial fantasy,” says Meridee Maynard, vice president at Northwestern Mutual.

She says that Americans suffer from in-group bias, pointing out that two-thirds of respondents said they received financial advice from a family member.

“People are not going out of their natural group to seek advice. Maybe one of the remedies is talking to a financial expert,” she says.

National Financial

in referrals deal

* In a move aimed at attracting more investment advisers to its growing financial services distribution network, National Financial Partners has struck a referral agreement with FPtransitions.com, an independent online forum for matching buyers and sellers of financial planning practices.

Launched in April 1999, National Financial has completed more than 85 acquisitions of insurance brokerage businesses, financial planners and employee-benefit companies that together manage more than $10 billion in assets.

The New York holding company’s primary backer is Apollo Management LP, an investment fund controlled by Leon Black. FPtransitions, of Portland, also recently acquired Succession-Planner.com, a rival web-based planner matching service also based in in the Oregon city.