Money Management Executive Latest News

If there is such a thing as a triopoly - an industry dominated by three companies - the mutual fund industry had it last year with regard to fund sales.

Scudder Kemper Investments of New York and Boston is cleaning house. Pending shareholder approval, it will merge similar funds it offers, completely liquidate six small funds, and reshape its funds' administrative fees and boards of directors.

One small fund group is moving against the trend of mutual fund companies to de-emphasize star portfolio managers.

Charles Schwab's Mutual Fund OneSource hit a milestone late last month when the assets of its mutual fund marketplace reached the $100 billion mark. Approximately $30 billion of new money was invested during 1999, translating into a 47 percent increase in assets for the year.

Neuberger Berman of New York registered with the SEC last week to add a new technology growth fund that will be launched in May, according to Jennifer Silver, the company's managing director. The new fund will be managed by a team of portfolio managers led by Silver, according to Neuberger.

Powerstreet, the online brokerage of Fidelity Investments of Boston and an adaptation of its online electronic-brokerage services, introduced last year, has been booming. But it is not doing so at the expense of converting mutual fund shareholders into day traders, the company says.

MAXfunds.com, an Internet-based mutual fund analysis firm in Ann Arbor, Mich., will launch its www.MAXfunds.com website to provide a home to start-ups and other funds that are too new or too small to qualify for a NASDAQ ticker symbol - generally those funds in business less than three years, or with less than $25 million under management. MAXfunds.com will track small funds from their inception.

Putnam Investments of Boston reopened its New Opportunities Fund to new investors on Jan. 10, but the availability was short-lived. After only nine trading days, the $34 billion portfolio surged another $1 billion, and Putnam decided to close the fund once again on Jan. 18, said a company spokesperson.

The number of employees switching asset allocations in their 401(k) programs increased in the month of January, according to an index released by Hewitt Associates of Chicago that measures the daily activity of 401(k) assets of 1.5 million employees.

Merrill Lynch Asset Management of Princeton, N.J. is reshuffling its international funds lineup to merge out of existence three comparatively small funds.