Investment Advisers

The investor group pursuing a hostile takeover of Gencorp volunteered Friday to increase its all-cash offer for the company by $10 a share to $110, a move analysts called an attempt to pressure the Akron, Ohio, conglomerate into dropping any plans for a buyback of its own stock. The maneuver means that Gencorp will now be required, at the very least, to match the offer if it wants to stave off a takeover by means of a stock repurchase.

Eric Miller, chief investment officer of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp., recently asked 21 money managers who were assembled in Pebble Beach, Calif., about the strategy they are using to invest their own money. Of the group, nine (or about 40%) said their personal strategy was more defensive than that of their clients, seven said theirs was about the same and five said they were more aggressive than their clients. Like it or not, investment advisers don't always practice what they preach--sometimes they tell clients one thing and do something quite different with their own money.

A top music industry agent is suing his former best friend and investment adviser, alleging that he lost at least $2.5 million on reckless and unauthorized real estate-related investments. Tom Ross, who heads the music division at Creative Artists Agency, names Craig Wald as the principal defendant in the Los Angeles Superior Court case.

Declaring that new state regulations governing financial planners do not go far enough, Senate leaders endorsed legislation Tuesday to further tighten the law on free-wheeling investment advisers operating in California. Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier), author of the legislation, said the bill is aimed at unscrupulous investment advisers who have bilked the public out of "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Sometime in the near future, if it hasn't happened already, you might start receiving mutual fund advice not from a broker, financial planner or insurance agent--but from an accountant. Forget that old stereotype of tax preparers who seem to go into hibernation once April 15 passes. Many accountants are growing new wings that will make them adept at various personal finance topics, including investments.

Hit twice by financial crises in the past five years, city officials are considering hiring a full-time investment adviser to watch over municipal funds. City Council members also will consider at their meeting today whether to hire an interim adviser until the new position can be posted and filled. The city now has about $120 million in its investment portfolio. The city, which had about $28 million in the county investment pool when it collapsed last year, has not recovered all of its money.

The trust, created under the will of the founder of Superior Oil, appointed the investment advisory firms to manage various types of investments for the fund. The trust also named Northern Trust Corp., Chicago, as custodian. The W. M. Keck Foundation, which benefits from the trust, reported at the same time the award of 95 grants totaling $20 million for 1984, of which 65% went to U.S. universities and colleges in the science, engineering, medical research and liberal arts fields.

John C. Ball has been appointed a director of Alpha Microsystems in Santa Ana, enlarging the board from eight to nine members. Ball is a registered investment adviser with a firm, JBL/New England Ltd., in Concord, Mass. Before forming his own company in 1989, Ball served as director of corporate strategy for Thermo Electron Corp., and before that, was vice president of the research departments at Blyth Eastman Dillon, A.G. Becker and PaineWebber.

The San Diego district attorney's office has charged San Diego investment adviser Donald D. Cook with 29 counts of grand theft in connection with Cook's bankrupt San Diego Realty Exchange operation. Cook's firm acted as a "facilitator" for commercial real estate owners who wanted to avoid the tax consequences of selling their property.

A Lake Forest investment adviser who pleaded guilty in federal court three months ago to defrauding investors of nearly $1.8 million has been sent to prison for two years and ordered to pay restitution. Randall C. Hutchens, 40, also was sentenced by a federal judge to three years' probation following his release from prison. From 1990 to 1992, Hutchens used his company, Laguna Equities Inc., to sell 61 investors securities that were supposedly issued by two insurance companies and backed by U.S.