Practice

An industry as competitive and highly regulated as the mutual fund industry could not possibly slip one by investors, right?

The bear market, a steep decline in mutual fund and variable annuity sales and the strain of product guarantees, will result in widespread downgrades at life insurance and annuity companies, all of the major ratings agencies have announced,

PALM DESERT, Calif. - There's no question that the Securities and Exchange Commission has left the mutual fund industry a little confused lately.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Ensuring that fund companies are complying with provisions of new anti-corporate fraud legislation will be at the top of the Securities and Exchange Commission's agenda for regulating fund companies in 2003, an SEC official said late last month.

The Massachusetts Securities Division has charged a Denver broker/dealer with scaring elderly people into abandoning their securities in favor of annuities with outrageous commissions.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Outdated and risky in this age of accounting scandals plaguing Wall Street. That is how a fund consultant and author described the fund industry's model for reviewing corporate reporting. To stave off future legislation, a new model is needed, the speaker told the 700 fund accountants gathered here last week at the Investment Company Institute's Tax & Accounting Conference.

The backlash against corporate secrecy spilled over into the usually clean mutual fund industry as the Securities and Exchange Commission took a first step last week in requiring mutual funds to disclose their proxy voting policies and votes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to require publicly traded companies to reveal their so-called critical accounting policies is a step in the right direction, according to leading fund companies.

Joseph Carrier, vice president and treasurer of the T. Rowe Price Funds, weighed in on a number of subjects concerning the industry during a recent interview with Mutual Fund Market News Associate Editor Chris Frankie. Carrier, chairman of the Investment Company Institute's Accounting/Treasurers Committee, also spoke about some of the topics to be discussed at the ICI 2002 Tax & Accounting Conference in Palm Desert, Calif., this week.

Changes to Illinois tax law may make the state's 529 college savings plan more attractive to Illinois residents, but they could also inspire other states to try to get residents to favor their in-state 529 plans. If that happens, fund companies that have established a 529 footprint in one state may have to scramble to form alliances with multiple states to get them into their plan.