Money Management Executive Latest News

OXFORD, Miss. – The mutual fund fee bill is in the mail. And it should include the hidden costs of mutual funds, which are so significant that in some cases they are several times greater than the fund’s stated expense ratio.

The case against Massachusetts Financial Services grew stronger Friday as an internal review revealed that mutual fund shareholders suffered $100 million in losses due to illegal late trading, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Most investors from affluent households, while unlikely to reduce the number of mutual fund shares they own, either see the recent scandal as a non-isolated incident or have not yet made up their minds, according to a recent study by Phoenix Marketing International.

The No. 1 and No. 3 U.S. public pension funds will work together on corporate governance reforms, but not create a joint office for such initiatives as was previously suggested, Reuters reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission last Tuesday put forth the details of its code of ethics proposal for mutual funds, as part of a three-pronged approach to improve corporate governance and disclosure in the $7 trillion industry. (See code of ethics details, page 13.)

The best of intentions sometimes go awry. But, despite the 12b-1 rule's departure from its original spirit, dismantling the rule is not a viable option, research firm Lipper concludes in a recently released study.

Nearly half of a pool of corporate finance chiefs say their company's 401(k) plan includes funds that have been tainted by the recent mutual fund scandal.

It's not easy being the new kid on the block. But sometimes being the old kid on the block is no bed of roses, either.

Wielding their $1 trillion clout, state pension leaders and treasurers partnered with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer recently to tear into the SEC's proposed fund reforms.

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.