Practice

SEC Chairman William Donaldson said last Tuesday the agency will seek the opinions of the nation's 91 million mutual fund investors over the next 60 days on what the ideal point-of-sale and trade-confirmation reports should look like for broker-sold funds.

The umpire strikes back. Investors are finally getting the right calls, as regulators have unveiled a series of aggressive steps to improve fund governance and eliminate hidden fees charged to shareholders.

If it is true that politics makes strange bedfellows, then financial services scandals make for even more curious divorces.

FleetBoston said on Thursday that two of its subsidiaries received a Wells notice from the SEC, indicating the agency's regional Boston office had recommended enforcement action against the firm for shirking its fiduciary duties.

Mutual fund managers who invest in companies with strong corporate governance profiles produce better long-term returns.

CINCINNATI - Although the Investment Company Institute successfully stalled the Baker Bill last spring, Congress is likely to pass and the President Bush is likely to approve the third piece of legislation in the history of mutual funds, ICI President Matthew Fink told the Greater Cincinnati Mutual Funds Association.

In this game of high-stakes "tag," there are no more hiding places and lots of "Its."

Even before Fundgate took the industry by storm, critics were calling into question the use of 12b-1 fees. And now regulatory action appears imminent.

A former attorney turned Las Vegas hedge fund manager has reaped the biggest gains so far in the unfolding mutual fund scandal, the SEC charged.

My primary concern remains that Congress, and to a lesser extent the SEC, will rush forth some "cure-all" measures, rules, regulations and laws that are poorly conceived, perhaps along the lines of Sarbanes-Oxley.