Portfolio

The majority of 401(k) participants choose lump-sum cash payouts when changing jobs instead of rolling over money into their new employer's plans or IRAs, according to a study by Hewitt Associates, a management consulting firm in Lincolnshire, Ill.

The Nvest Funds of Boston is planning to offer a fund that invests primarily in real estate investment trusts through one of Nvest's subsidiaries.

Dreyfus of New York has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer a second technology fund, the Dreyfus Premier Nextech Fund.

The Warburg Pincus Funds of New York is planning to add two new technology funds - including a tech index fund - and a financial services fund to its lineup.

Strong Capital Management of Menomonee Falls, Wis. is reconsidering how to price the new class of shares it had announced it would create to sell through intermediaries.

Barclay's Global Investors' introduction of four new exchange-traded funds attracted close to $800 million in assets on their first day of trading on the American Stock Exchange.

The money management affiliate of the Pitcairn Trust Co. of Jenkintown, Pa., has filed a registration statement to offer a lineup of nine mutual funds.

Munder Capital Management of Birmingham, Mich. filed a registration statement May 9 for a new closed-end Internet fund, the Munder @Vantage Fund.

Aegon USA/Transamerica of Los Angeles has formed a new investment management company, principally to give equity interest in the new company to the portfolio managers and other key executives formerly with Transamerica Investment Services, said Richard Latzer, chief executive officer of the new investment advisor, Transamerica Investment Management.

In the bull market, investors have stampeded to aggressive mutual funds. But will investors flock to bearish mutual funds with the same enthusiasm if the markets face a sustained bear market? That is a bet some fund advisers are taking - with mixed results.