Relocate or Quit
It has been more than three years since industry firms began reopening their office doors after the Covid-19 lockdown, and in many cases, shops are still adjusting their in-office policies. Fidelity, for example, will require employees to work two weeks per month in the office, starting next month. However, the firm has gone on a hiring tear since the start of the pandemic, bringing thousands of staffers on board, including some who don't live near any of the Boston-based firm's 10 regional offices. So some of those workers must either move or find a new job elsewhere, Ignites' Beagan Wilcox Volz reports.
"You're telling people you have to relocate across the country for your job — there's no assistance, there is nothing for these people who we hired during the pandemic," one employee told Ignites. A Fidelity spokesperson said that relocation assistance was offered "in select cases."
In other news, Ken Leech, co-chief investment officer at Western Asset Management, has been placed on leave while regulators investigate some of his trading activity. He was listed on 25 mutual funds with a combined $60 billion in assets, including funds subadvised on behalf of advisors, such as Morgan Stanley, Morningstar and SEI, Brian Ponte reported. Morningstar's fund ratings arm, meanwhile, has placed all Wamco funds under review – including those that the investment chief wasn't listed on, Alyson Velati reported. However, it isn't clear if Leech did anything wrong. Wamco has been investigating him since last October, and hasn't uncovered any evidence of fraud, Joe Morris reported.
Mark your calendar. The Securities and Exchange Commission is scheduled to vote tomorrow on whether to adopt proposed amendments to its liquidity risk management rule, Ponte reported. That is the controversial rule proposal that included mandatory swing pricing and created a hard close of trading at 4 p.m. ET. It isn't clear which provisions from the draft rule will make their way into the final version.
Who Earns What?
The average industry worker took home nearly $173,000 last year, up about 3% from 2022, an Ignites analysis of regulatory filings found. The top-paying company examined was Virtus, where employees collected a median of $248,550 in 2023, Madison Hall reports.
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