Portfolio

NEW YORK - With poor investment management, the mutual fund industry has opened the door for alternative products like Web folios, separately-managed accounts, and exchange-traded funds, according to John Bogle, the founder and former chairman of the Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. However, with a return to sound management based on the fundamental principles of investing, mutual funds should be able to fend off these challengers, he said. Bogle spoke here last week at a forum on use of the Internet in financial services sponsored by Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass.

E*TRADE Group of Menlo Park, Calif. has signed an agreement with Standard & Poor's of New York to offer online investors 21 predesigned "baskets" of stocks, to be called E*TRADE Stock Baskets.

State Street Global Alliance, a jointly-owned subsidiary of State Street Global Advisors and State Street Corporation, all of Boston, will develop and sell alternative investment products, including hedge funds, and has acquired hedge fund manager, RXR Group of Stamford, Conn., the company announced last week.

New York Life Investment Management LLC of Parsippany, N.J., has announced that it will offer three new funds for institutional investors.

By issuing exchange-traded shares of the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund last Thursday, the Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. may have compromised its brand name and reputation of being a product innovator, not a product marketer, according to some industry observers.

ING Pilgrim Funds of Scottsdale, Ariz. has filed a preliminary proxy with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to replace J.P. Morgan of New York as the sub-advisor to its Pilgrim Research Enhanced Index Fund with Aeltus Investment Management of Hartford, Conn., an affiliated company, according to the proxy.

A lot of Americans are looking at the short-term when it comes to their retirement plan balances. Thirty percent of investors who faced a choice about their plan balances, either because of leaving a job or retiring, said they took a cash payment, according to a recent study by Putnam Investments of Boston.

The average American worker's confidence in his ability to retire comfortably is declining, and fewer workers are actively saving for retirement this year than last year, according to a recent survey. In fact, roughly four out of every 10 respondents indicated that they are unsure if they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement, according to a survey issued earlier this month by the Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington, D.C.

SunAmerica Mutual Funds of New York has announced that it has expanded its optional Asset Protection Plan term life insurance coverage to include the five SunAmerica Brazos mutual funds which are offered as part of the SunAmerica mutual fund family.

The Vanguard Group may add an exchange-traded share class to its Small Cap Index Fund and its Total Stock Market Fund, according to Brian Mattes, a company spokesperson.