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Since late 2006, fund executives have been fretting over a past accounting treatment and reinterpretation of an accounting standard for municipal bond funds.

As it approaches its first birthday, the Gaming and Casino Fund, now managed by Ahrens Advisors of Dallas, is ready to welcome a brand new parent.

Critics of 401(k) plans say they have failed the nation's workers because they don't equip them with financial advice. Although the Pension Protection Act prescribes giving guidance, it is vague on what it should constitute and, therefore, hasn't prompted many plan sponsors or administrators to provide such assistance. Without clear rules, they are afraid of fiduciary liability.

ICI Selects Olson as Senior Counsel of Int'l Affairs

If you're sitting in your exhibition booth reading this, it's probably time for atonement. Oh, and put down that bagel. On your feet!

JPMorgan Finds Flaws in Target-Date Funds' Design

Anthropologist Gregory Bateson wrote about the difference between map and territory in his 1972 book, "Steps to an Ecology of Mind." By this he meant that the maps we hold in our minds, while often useful, can in no way be expected to reflect the complexity of the real-world territory they are designed to represent.

As private banks and trust companies try to increase their stakes in the investment marketplace, they are building their own platforms, and increasingly those platforms are open architecture, according to a study released by Prudential Financial. The report, prepared by 3C Financial Partners, includes data from 65 private bank and trust companies and offers a nine-step best-practice perspective of how to break into the investment marketplace. Of those banks, 9% said they were researching various platforms to buy, and 38% said they were already renting platforms. Another 17% said they were building platforms of their own, while 35% said they planned to make no changes.The most common type of platforms is an open-architecture-style smorgasbord of investment options. “There is no doubt that banks recognize the need for more flexible, objective and competitive investment offerings to their clients,” said Kevin Osborn, vice president at Prudential Investments.

At first, mutual fund managers said they didn’t think the subprime loan disaster would affect them. But now, real estate funds, even though many of them are concentrated on commercial investments, are feeling the heat, The Wall Street Journal reports. In addition, so are funds with large exposure to homebuilder companies or regional banks that had been making the loans. What’s impacting these funds—particularly real estate funds—is the concern of investors that defaults on risky mortgages will spread from residential investments to commercial. In addition, because real estate funds have had such a tremendous run-up in recent years, some believe their day in the sun is reaching an end. In the past month, real estate funds have declined an average of 4.7%. But because they were the best-performing category in 2006, they are still up 5.16% year to date and 25.5% for the 12 months ended March 21. “There’s been a lot of talk on the backburner [about] when is real estate going to cool,” said Andrew Gogerty, a Morningstar analyst. “This could be the trigger.” Nonetheless, stalwarts think the effect will be short-lived. “The knee-jerk reaction by the market is to correct anything that is related to real estate,” said Jay Rosenberg¸ co-manager of the First American Real Estate Securities Fund. “The stock price reaction is a bit overdone,” agreed Brad Hamilton, co-manager of the Weitz Value Fund. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

Mutual funds that shell out advertising money do win more investors. However, those clients might be paying a higher price in the end. Mutual funds that advertise don’t perform any better than their competitors, a Sweden study found. In fact, it is possible that the higher advertising costs cause firms to charge higher fees, meaning that customers may actually earn less income over time. “Mutual fund investors who pay attention to ads could end up with less money available for retirement,” said Henrik Cronqvist, author of the study and assistant professor of finance at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. The fund industry spends about $6 billion each year on advertising in the U.S, Cronqvist noted. Not a lot of attention has been to paid to how advertising affects consumers. “Mutual funds that would be good choices based on my study would be those that are not heavily advertised and which do not spend a lot of money on branding. If they spend a lot of money on branding, they probably will have to pay for that with higher fees,” Cronqvist said. The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.