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As insurance products, annuities are much more highly regulated, with different requirements for each state. For instance, some policies or riders are not available in every state. Such limitations can make a broker unwilling to want to try to use annuities or cause errors when filling out policies in the first place. Such delays and inconveniences present further impediments to sales.

Ah, the catch-22. With mutual fund firms concentrating on the bottom line now more than ever, any spending that is not deemed critical to business has all but come to a halt, according to a variety of mutual fund consulting firms.

As U.S. warplanes roared off aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea on Oct. 7, the fund industry waded yet deeper into an unprecedented economic territory.

When hiring a new wholesaler or making organizational changes to distribution teams, most fund companies don't consider wholesalers' ids or egos, but maybe they should.

Fund mergers have increased recently, and as long as the current market downturn continues, the numbers of mergers will only go up, according to industry analysts.

Last fall, Tif Joyce and his wife, Judy, left their jobs at West America Bank to run their own financial advisory firm. The pair spent the past year arduously building a client base for the business, Joyce Financial Management, which is based in Sonoma County, Calif. The initiative was, by most standards, a success; the firm now has 175 clients.

MFmarketnews.com is keeping abreast of the industry's latest developments with postings twice a day. If you didn't log on last week here are some Web exclusives you missed:

Hedge funds are developing into a formidable competitor to mutual funds, as brokers, pension funds and insurance companies join the high-net-worth investors who bankroll most funds. Even mutual fund companies and insurers have recently bought hedge fund companies.

Managed accounts, a hot new area of financial services, are feared to be stealing money from mutual funds. In response, many fund companies have begun offering managed accounts, mostly through the Big Five wirehouses, in addition to their fund lineups. Now one annuity developer is seeking to leverage this product wave.

A little less than a year after being acquired by UniCredito, Pioneer Investment Management named Daniel Geraci CEO, replacing David Tripple, who stepped down at the end of September. As CEO of Pioneer, Geraci, formerly the president of Fidelity Investments' private wealth division, will be responsible for leveraging the wealth management products and services of its Milan-based parent company, Unicredito.