ICI Comes Clean on Who its Real Master Is

The Investment Company Institute has always been known as an advocate of fund shareholders, however the ICI has recently announced a sudden change of heart.

The ICI has recently gone public with its new stance, that it does not represent the 92 million Americans with $8.2 trillion invested in mutual funds.

In June 2004, under the guidance and leadership of Paul Schott Stevens, president of the ICI, the institute began getting more involved with the industry. For example, the institute ordered an audit to better comprehend the members, press and views of the mutual fund industry.

Greg Ahern, ICI spokesman, called the audit a "reality check," in an interview with Reuters. He added that the audit crumbled ICI's 60-year-old view, that shareholders and their advisors have common interests.

In reality, this, quit eunderstandably, is not the case. In the past, ICI has campaigned for policies that did not exactly serve in the best interests of shareholders.

Advisory companies pay for most of the institute's maintenance, as the audit proved, and so ICI is now going to be backing advisory companies.

Roy Weitz, publisher of running the shareholder advocacy Web site www.FundAlarm.com, told Reuters, "The ICI will get more respect and have more influence now that they have come clean. It is more intellectually honest to present themselves this way."