Scudder Kemper Investments of New York and Invesco Funds Group of Denver, Colo. are now offering personalized news and tax filing services to investors through their websites.
The additions to Scudder's and Invesco's websites are indicative of a growing trend among fund companies to build up their websites' attractions in order to make them - as Internet consultants describe them - "sticky." Fidelity Investments of Boston and Charles Schwab & Co. of San Francisco recently announced they would begin offering both existing and potential shareholders the ability to file their taxes electronically through the companies' respective websites.
Other fund complexes are putting existing shareholders in touch with financial planners through their websites.
Recent reports and surveys on the future of the Internet for financial service companies have stressed the importance of offering varied services to shareholders. Mutual fund companies will eventually need to extend their web services beyond financial information, according to some analysts.
