Portfolio

The IDS Mutual Fund Group, the proprietary mutual funds of American Express Financial Corporation, wants to change its name and increase some fees it charges investors.

The Mutual Fund Education Alliance will hold its seventh annual marketing seminar in San Francisco October 18-19th. The Alliance is based in Kansas City, Mo.

Vanguard has introduced the Tax-Managed Small-Cap Fund, a no-load fund aimed at reducing taxes by investing in a diversified portfolio of low-cost, small-capitalization stocks that promise long-term capital growth and nominal current income.

Stein Roe of Chicago is taking public the Small Company Growth Fund, which is co-managed by Bill Garrison and Steve Saplopek. Their strategy is to invest in 120 to 150 stocks of firms that have substantial growth possibilities and strong management teams. Stein Roe launched the fund in 1996 as a multi-cap fund.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary, Fidelity Investments of Boston has produced nine 30-minute educational videotapes, derived from the 720-page course book written by the company's president, Robert Pozen ("The Mutual Fund Business", MIT Press, 1998).

Mutual fund companies have found it difficult to make major inroads in the small business market, but Fidelity Investments is trying to make headway by selling and administering plans directly over the Internet.

An "intelligent document," or IDOC system, created by NeoMedia Technologies of Fort Myers, Fla. can link readers directly to the Internet or to another database site from an annual report or financial statement on software. The product is being marketed by Scott Printing of New Providence, New Jersey. By clicking on a key word or bar code embedded in the document, the IDOC technology can redirect a reader to a company's website or to another area in the electronic document, to learn more about what they are reading. Scott Printing believes delivering information initially in a succinct manner, and then in greater levels of detail, will allow mutual fund and investment companies to provide information more clearly to investors.

Undiscovered Managers Funds has expanded its roster of nine funds with two new international funds, the UM International Equity Fund and the UM International Small Cap Equity Fund. The investment objective of both funds is capital appreciation by investing in publicly traded stocks in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Barrett Associates of New York has introduced the Barrett Growth Fund, a no-load, long-term capital appreciation fund designed to benefit from long-term capital gains tax rates and low overhead.

GE Financial Assurance has added four new funds to the GE Family of Funds. The new funds are a European equity fund; a mid-cap value equity fund; an emerging markets fund and a high yield bond fund. GE Investment Management is adviser to the new funds, although the mid-cap fund uses NWQ Investment Management as a sub-adviser, and the high yield fund uses Miller Anderson Sherrerd.