Portfolio

Two investment advisers with websites that facilitate online community investing have disclosed plans to introduce mutual funds that will be run by individual investors, not veteran fund managers.

The financial world may have to wait a little for the first actively-managed, exchange-traded fund, at least for the kind that leading exchange-traded fund sponsors are trying to develop.

In an effort to improve online interaction with consumers, the website of Pioneer Investment Management of Boston is offering "Financial CyberGuides" which, much like real advisors, listen and respond to investors' questions.

SSB Citi Asset Management Group of New York has introduced its first-ever family of no-load index funds. The family is comprised of 11 index funds. Two other index funds, pegged to the FORTUNE 500 and FORTUNE e-50 stock indexes - the Citi FORTUNE 500 Index Fund and the Citi FORTUNE e-50 Index Fund - are expected to be offered to investors beginning Nov. 27.

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh is collaborating with Native American asset managers to create the first fund family for Native Americans. The first fund will be called 4 Winds Treasury Money Market Fund. The family's aim will be to get a large proportion of the money invested by the 500 tribes in the U.S., a figure calculated to be a total of $15 billion.

new york - Despite their growing popularity, exchange traded funds face substantial obstacles to continued growth, according to industry executives. Foremost among those obstacles are the heavy concentration of assets in a few products and the narrowness of their appeal, the lack of understanding of the products, the need for education and the high cost of entry into the market, according to executives who spoke at a conference on closed-end funds here last week sponsored by IBC USA Conferences of Westborough, Mass.

Ever more mutual fund companies are offering managed, customized accounts for individual investors, according to a recently published report by Cerulli Associates of Boston.

Barclays Global Investors of San Francisco will launch its first exchange-traded fund that tracks a Nasdaq index sometime in January, according to a preliminary prospectus the company filed with the SEC Oct. 19.

Invesco Funds Group of Denver is adding a new class of shares to the majority of its funds. The new class "K" shares are offered to qualified retirement plans, educational savings programs, and wrap programs through an intermediary and include an extra fee, which will be paid to that intermediary, according to a recent SEC filing.

State Street Global Advisors of Boston is planning to launch a family of exchange-traded funds in Europe based on the European indices of Morgan Stanley Capital International of New York. State Street Global has a licensing agreement to use Morgan Stanley's sector indices, according to Liz Kennedy, a spokesperson for State Street Global.