Putnam CEO: Next 3-5 Years Greatest Period Ever for Mutual Funds

Finally, I finished the morning with an interview that I was really, really excited about. Putnam Investments CEO and President Bob Reynolds joined me for an exclusive interview. Bob spent most of his career, almost 30 years, at Fidelity before joining Putnam a year ago. He has a sterling reputation and he's been trying to rebuild a franchise that lose tons of assets.

Today we talked about some announcements they made yesterday to their fee structure. The cuts on fees for consumers in some cases amounted to 35% discounts. It's a move he calls good for investors and shareholders. We talked about why now and whether it's all a move to get more assets under management. He told me he thinks the next 3-5 years will be the "greatest period ever for mutual funds because of the baby boomer generation." He talked about the 14 trillion in money market accounts and deposits and how they feel they can claim a piece of the pie.

We covered regulatory change, compensation, consolidation and the economy. Bob was terrific!

The most embarassing part for me, between us, was at the end when I told him to say hi to Kevin Cronin. I told him that Kevin used to push me on the desk at Morgan Stanley to get the best execution. I used to work at Morgan Stanley as a trader. He was at Aim at the time. Anyhow I mixed up the Kevin Cronin's. My Kevin Cronin (the Kevin I referred to in the interview) is at Invesco Aim running the global trading business for Aim, Invesco, Trimark, Perpetual, PowerShares, Atlantic Trust and Wilbur Ross. The Kevin Cronin Bob probably thought I was talking about was on the fixed income side at Putnam before he became CIO.  I think that Kevin Cronin departed last fall after Bob arrived and I don't think it was a favorable departure. To tell you the truth, I don't know! Just evidence of how hard it is to keep up ! Oh well. I tried.

Here is our interview.