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NASD Probes Out-of-State 529 Plan Sales:Six Firms Suspected of Misleading Investors on Tax Benefits

NASD is probing six large securities firms for their 529 college savings plan sales practices, The Wall Street Journal reports today. Although the article does not name the six firms, and NASD’s Web site makes no mention of the probe, NASD Vice Chairman Mary Schapiro told The Journal that an "overwhelming majority," typically 90%, of 529 plans sold by the six firms are sold to out-of-state residents. The NASD is investigating whether these are appropriate sales, Schapiro said, because nonresident investors "potentially lost one of the great benefits of buying a 529 plan: state tax deductability" of contributions.

Four of the country’s biggest state pension funds are backing off their push to place directors on the board of Marsh & McLennan, parent to Putnam Investments, the quartet said on Thursday.

The cozy relationship between mutual fund boards and management more is likely to take center stage in future investigations by securities regulators since eight directors at Bank of America's Nations Funds were removed as part of a landmark $675 million settlement with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the SEC, according to a Wall Street Journal expose.

The SEC is eying a new regulation that may force Edward "Ned" C. Johnson III, chairman of Fidelity Investments and its mutual funds' trustees, to relinquish one of his senior titles, The Wall Street Journal reports.

To earn themselves big bonuses, portfolio managers are more concerned about their firm’s profitability and drumming up new business, than they are how well they do by shareholders’ returns, The Wall Street Journal reports today.

A mutual fund expert from Lipper predicts that more than 20 additional companies may come under investigation in the fund scandal, Reuters reports.

The brokerage subsidiary of H&R Block, the nation’s No. 1 tax preparer, said it could be punished for improper mutual fund trades, Reuters reports.

Changing jobs can be quite a hassle for most new employees; deciding what they should do with their existing 401(k) plan could be even more time-consuming, not to mention confusing.

Six months after they were named as part of the opening-round, Canary Capital portion of the mutual fund scandal, Bank One’s One Group funds are no longer sell material, a Morningstar analyst said on Friday.