Portfolio

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.

Nuveen Investments of Chicago and Epoch Partners, an investment banking firm in San Francisco, announced plans last week to introduce two more exchange-traded funds. Nuveen also announced that it is developing an actively-managed exchange-traded fund. Nuveen does not yet know whether it will introduce a single actively-managed exchange-traded fund or several of them, said Laurel O'Brien, a spokesperson for Nuveen.

TD Waterhouse Group of New York has introduced seven new proprietary funds, the company announced. The funds have no transaction fees and the minimum initial investment is $1,000, the company said. For subsequent investments, the minimum is $100.The funds cover various market sectors and asset classes.

AIM Management Group of Houston, Texas has announced that it has formed AIM Private Asset Management, a new subsidiary that will market customized portfolios to high-net-worth and institutional clients.

The Orbitex Group of Funds of New York last week introduced the Orbitex Life Sciences & Biotechnology Fund. Orbitex' first interval fund will invest in small- to mid-sized companies in the life sciences, pharmaceuticals, medical research and biotechnology research, development and implementation, the company said.

MaxFunds.com of Ann Arbor, Mich., a website that tracks small and new mutual funds, has launched 12 portfolios of securities that will be managed by investment professionals whose investment decisions will be available to consumers for a $2 monthly fee, said Jim Atkinson, president of MaxFunds.com.

Of the ten new streetTRACKS exchange-traded funds introduced this month, one in particular has caught the fund industry's attention for its ground-breaking nature.

Online banking will soon no longer be the only means of paying bills over the Internet. At least two mutual fund companies are now building the capabilities to allow investors to pay bills online from their money market fund accounts.