Portfolio

Investors of the Firsthand Funds' Medical Specialists Fund are in for a surprise. Kendrick Kam, one of the fund's two portfolio managers and president of Interactive Research Advisors, the fund's adviser, is launching his own investment advisory firm and intends to take the $6 million fund with him.

The future of the mutual fund industry will not be as patrician as its past. The U.S. is becoming less white, and the percentage of homes in which English is the first language diminishes all the time. Minorities like Hispanics and Asians make up an increasing percentage of the population.

Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Co. of Boston wants to expand sales of its 401(k) and other defined contribution products through financial advisors with new enrollment materials designed to be more attractive and comprehensible than the materials they replace.

E*Trade of Palo Alto, Calif. plans to expand its family of index funds with an Internet index fund. The new fund, the E*Trade E-Commerce Index Fund, was filed with the SEC on July 26. The fund will invest in the stocks in the Goldman Sachs E-Commerce Composite Index, which tracks companies that derive most of their revenue online or sell e-commerce infrastructure.

Allianz Group of Munich, Germany is developing its breadth of financial products in the U.S. and is planning a family of mutual funds to be sold here.

Barclays Global Investors - the giant institutional money management firm in San Francisco - is planning to offer 51 exchange-traded index funds, a lineup that is expected to raise the firm's presence among retail investors and increase competition in a slice of the open-end index fund market.

Texas money manager J. Paul Hamilton is getting into a part of the mutual fund business that does not get a lot of attention - the irrevocable trust business.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of New York plans to introduce a growth fund that will invest in the companies at which teenagers spend their money.

Nomura IBJ Global Investment Advisors of New York plans to offer by year-end defined contribution pension plans modeled on 401(k) plans in the U.S. Nomura IBJ Global is a joint venture between Nomura Securities and the Industrial Bank of Japan Ltd., both headquartered in Tokyo.

The U.S. Department of Labor in conjunction with the Investment Company Institute and other trade groups is urging employers to use a new form that requires 401(k) providers to make detailed disclosures about their fees.