Portfolio

Linklaters & Alliance, an international law firm based in Brussels, is offering a new Internet database, called Blue Flag Funds, which gives mutual fund companies information on starting investment products in other countries.

In response to the ample returns and risks associated with today's market, the Institute for Investment Management Consultants of Washington, D.C, has created software to help its members - investment managers to institutions and individuals - show their customers the risks inherent in their investment strategy.

Standard & Poor's of New York has created a new mutual fund division by merging three units. The units, Standard & Poor's Micropal, Standard & Poor's Fund Research and Standard & Poor's Managed Funds Ratings, will now be known as Standard & Poor's Fund Services. Sanford Bragg will become managing director of the new unit. The move is aimed at accelerating the company's global expansion, Bragg said.

McLeodUSA of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has selected MassMutual Retirement Services of Springfield, Mass., as the supplier for McLeod's $50 million, 4,000-participant 401(k) plan.

Berger Associates is expanding a joint partnership begun last year to add a retail technology fund to the Berger Funds lineup.

AIM Advisors of Houston plans to launch a fund that will invest in companies it expects will benefit from demographic, economic and lifestyle trends. The fund, to be called the AIM Dent Demographic Trends Fund and to be introduced in June, will be an all-cap growth fund modeled after the teachings of strategic consultant Harry S. Dent, Jr. Through his company, H.S. Dent Advisors, Dent will serve as sub-adviser to the fund.

Charles Schwab Investment Management of San Francisco last week introduced the Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund. The fund is designed to track the performance of the U.S. stock market, as measured by the Wilshire 5000 Index. The index contains nearly every U.S. publicly-traded stock.

Capital Research & Management of Los Angeles last week introduced the New World Fund, a fund that will focus on emerging markets. Capital Research & Management is known as a conservative company and has opened only five new funds since 1990.

Americans pay scant attention to a future employer's 401(k) or other retirement savings plan when they accept a new position, a survey by Fidelity Investments of Boston has found.

Ford Motor Co. of Detroit has made Fidelity PortfolioPlanner, an online retirement tool sold by Fidelity Investments of Boston, available to all Ford employees. PortfolioPlanner helps 401(k) investors with retirement planning and asset allocation decisions, and gives them examples of model portfolios.