Special Program Root Tag

Rep. George Miller (D-CA), is being stubborn on pushing his bill regarding 401(K) fee disclosures to fruition. The bill, if passed, would require that 401(K) plans offer a passive index fund as an investment option, as well clearly explain to participants of 401(K) plans the fees that they are paying for their plans, according to Fund Action.

In the past few weeks, fund companies have become far more candid than ever before about their holdings, particularly those that expose their funds to subprime holdings and other risk, The Wall Street Journal reports. Along with this, they are now going to great lengths to explain losses and to detail how they have cut back risky exposure.

FMR Corp. paid lobbying firm OB-C Group $120,000 to lobby Congress on tax legislation and other economic issues, the Boston Globe reports, citing a form posted on the Senate’s online public records office.One of the OB-C executives who lobbied on Fidelity’s behalf was Robert Stevenson, communications director for former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

John Hancock Retirement Plan Services launched two new initiatives to help 401(k) participants achieve a comfortable retirement.

While Harry Lange has done a notable job of jacking up the performance of the Fidelity Magellan Fund since taking over in October 2005—the fund is up 11.6% so far this year—Tim Cohen has not had has much success on the Fidelity Growth & Income Fund, the Boston Globe reports.Lange replaced Bob Stansky, while around the same time, Cohen replaced Steven Kaye.

A U.S. judge has ordered Merrill Lynch to pay an additional $125 million to settle 23 individual stock investor lawsuits for having published biased research by Henry Blodget. Earlier this year, a court mandated the firm pay $39 million to mutual fund investors in three lawsuits.

Citigroup is shuttering its $2.4 billion hedge fund Tribeca Global Investments, which will eliminate around 50 jobs, according to The New York Times.Fund executives expect to return $500 million to investors over the next few weeks, a person involved with the situation said.

Morgan Stanley is launching its first two new funds in India for the first time in 13 years, Reuters reports. Currently, it only runs one fund, the Morgan Stanley Growth Fund, which it launched in 1994. It was the first mutual fund offered in India by an overseas investment firm.

Charles Schwab says the number of its 401(k) plan clients automatically enrolling employees has risen dramatically to 20%, up from only 5% in 2006. Of those that do, 25% automatically place investors in target-date funds, and 95% give investors the chance to set up annual savings increases.

Vanguard is now offering discounted financial planning and lower online brokerage commissions to investors who have $100,000 in assets with the firm. Previously, those discounts were only available to those with $250,000 in assets.

James E. Stowers III, chairman of the board at American Century Investments, has stepped down from his position to “focus his full attention on new business ventures,” the company announced. Stowers has spent his entire 26-year career so far at the company that his father, James E. Stowers, Jr., founded in 1958.

Fidelity Investments has named Ren Cheng chief investment officer of its lifecycle and asset allocation funds, Reuters reports. Formerly one of the portfolio managers of Fidelity’s Freedom line of lifecycle funds, Cheng now oversees $130 million in assets and 12 portfolio managers and analysts. Although he previously oversaw the group, he didn’t have the CIO title.

The Save Darfur Coalition is extending its campaign against mutual fund firms that have investments in companies in Sudan to include four more fund firms—American Funds, Franklin Resources, JPMorgan Chase and Vanguard— the Boston Globe reports.

Fidelity Investments will open a research and development facility in Galway, Ireland manned by 49 professionals who will collaborate with a dozen professors at local universities, the Boston Globe reports. They will join the 300 people who already work in Galway and Dublin in fund administration.

Rydex Investments has launched the Rydex International Rotation Fund, a fund that seeks to outperform the MSCI World Ex-U.S. Index.

Despite the market turmoil caused by the subprime crisis, most mutual funds are in the black, although their returns are not as strong as previous years, the Boston Globe reports. In fact, only sector funds that concentrate on banks and real estate are taking a hit.

Investors pulled $32 billion from hedge funds in July, the largest monthly withdrawal since 2000, and experts believe withdrawals could even be higher in August, the Associated Press reports.

A Massachusetts appeals court has denied a $15 million payout to Peter Scannell, the former Putnam Investments call center employee who blew the whistle on mutual fund trading and set off an industrywide scandal.

Speaking before a banking conference, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck said that the credit crisis is opening the eyes of American and British regulators to the dangers of hedge funds and the need for regulation, the International Herald Tribune reports.

Ryan Jacob rode the dot-com craze to incredible triple-digit-return highs and then, when the market crashed, lost 90% of investors’ money. Now Morningstar rates the Jacob Internet No. 1 in the technology sector for the past three and five years, Registered Rep reports.