Portfolio

American Express Financial Advisors of Minneapolis is launching a combined brokerage and mutual fund service in an effort to compete with full-service brokers and mutual fund sellers E*Trade of Menlo Park, Calif., and Charles Schwab Investment Management of San Francisco.

Scudder Kemper Investments of Boston has signed a deal with Financial Engines of Palo Alto, Calif., the Internet investment advisor, to provide online investment advice to sponsors of especially mid-sized defined contribution plans. The deal was announced August 2.

Viking Mutual Funds, a new firm in Minot, N.D., is now offering its first three funds, which the SEC approved on Aug. 3. They are Viking Tax-Free Fund for Montana, Viking Tax-Free Fund for North Dakota and Viking Large-Cap Value Fund.

E*Trade Group of Menlo Park, Calif., filed with the SEC in early August to offer two new funds, one based on e-commerce and a second based on businesses in Europe, Australia, Asia and the Far East.

Oppenheimer Funds of New York recently filed with the SEC to introduce two new funds, the Trinity Growth Fund and the Trinity Core Fund.

Salomon Smith Barney and SSB Citi Asset Management Group of New York have selected First Data Investor Services Group of Westborough, Mass., to provide recordkeeping and administrative services for a new 401(k) program geared for small businesses called (k) Choice.

Taking a tip from its variable annuities, Aetna Life and Annuity of Hartford, Conn., recently introduced a mutual fund that provides a guarantee of principal against a possible market downturn.

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.