Money Management Executive Latest News

The Value Line Funds of New York is asking shareholders to approve the addition of a rule 12b-1 fee to boost the distribution of 10 of the group's funds.

Earlier this month, the Calvert Funds of Bethesda, Md. disclosed plans to merge a pair of its state-specific municipal bond funds into a larger fund. The funds' small sizes - the larger of the two had about $14 million in assets, according to a March 10 SEC filing - were cited as the reason for the proposed merger.

Marianne K. Smythe, a partner in the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering of Washington, is chairperson of the Mutual Funds and Investment Management Conference sponsored by the Investment Company Institute and Federal Bar Association being held this week in Palm Desert, Calif. Smythe is a former director and associate director of the SEC's division of investment management. She recently spoke with Mutual Fund Market News reporter Mike Garrity. An edited account of their conversation follows.

Internet company valuations have sent mutual fund returns soaring over the past year. But those rocket-like stock prices have also created another phenomenon that fund companies are not so happy about - technology worker defections to those same Internet firms.

Marsico Capital Management of Denver, Colo. began offering investors the ability to open new accounts online earlier this month, making it one of the first funds to do so. The company is currently offering the service on its website through Sunstone Technology, a back office service provider based in Milwaukee, Wis. Executives from Marsico declined to comment.

Ask Matthew Fink, president of the Investment Company Institute for the past 29 years, about the slowdown in growth in the U.S. mutual fund industry and increasing competition from foreign fund companies, exchange-traded funds and separate accounts, and Fink either gently deflects or dismisses each question.

The Canadian government's easing of foreign property restrictions in registered savings plans has created expanded opportunities for U.S. and other foreign money managers, and is prompting local firms to review their product strategies.

Two closed-end funds have taken unusual steps in recent weeks.

Ronald G. Olin, president of Deep Discount Advisors of Asheville, N.C., has been in several well-publicized proxy fights with closed-end funds over the past few years. In his attempt to reorganize the funds he invests in, Olin has sought the ouster of money managers and board members - even a former Australian prime minister from one fund. And while much has been written about Olin, the shareholder bulldog, little has been written about Olin himself.

Nathan A. Chapman Jr. does not have to do a lot of arm-twisting to sell his mutual funds these days. The president of Chapman Capital Management of Baltimore only has to mention the performance of his Domestic Emerging Markets Equity Fund to raise eyebrows and open wallets.