Special Program Root Tag

Legg Mason, the manager of Colorado's 529 college savings plan, Scholars Choice, is switching five of the funds offered in the plan with new options, including the Legg Mason Value Trust Fund, which is managed by Bill Miller. Other funds now offered in the plan are: Legg Mason Partners Aggressive Growth Fund, Royce Pennsylvania Mutual Fund, Legg Mason International Equity Trust and Western Asset Core Plus Bond Portfolio. In the near future, the plan will also add the John Hancock Classic Value Fund.

Due to the growth of the investment management industry in Asia over the past few years, BISYS has opened a new office in Hong Kong. The office will complement the firm's 24-hour global fund services, serving 1,100 investment advisors in 60 countries, by focusing on clients in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, Japan and Taiwan.

Less than a third of mutual fund companies are providing financial advisers with useful wealth transfer tools and education--thereby causing both to miss out on a potentially huge market due to the transfer of much of the nation's retirement wealth from pension plans into defined contribution plans.

MassMutual has had tremendous success boosting 401(k) participation by supplying workers with pocket PCs to make on-the-spot selections during enrollment meetings, FinanceTech reports.

Banc of America Investment Advisors, the adviser to the Liberty All-Star Funds, has agreed to sell the portfolios to ALPS Advisers.

Knight Capital Group has taken a minority stake in ReFlow Management, the two companies announced yesterday, without specifying the size of the equity position.

A new mindset seems to be taking over at the leading fund companies: encouraging investors to make responsible investments, rather than chasing their assets by pushing imprudent investments, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Vanguard, long known for its index funds and selling direct to consumers, has been developing exchange-traded funds that many believe are specifically targeted to brokers and financial advisers--a departure in distribution strategy, MarketWatch reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered five mutual fund companies to return $7 million, plus interest, to investors for not charging them the correct performance-related fees between April 1997 and December 2004. The five companies are Dreyfus, Gartmore Mutual Fund Capital Trust, Kensington Investment Group, Numeric Investors and Putnam Investment Management.

London-based Barclays Global Investors has requested permission to launch an exchange-traded fund that tracks the primary socially responsible index: the Domini 400.

Investors due a reimbursement from the mutual fund scandals shouldn't get hopes up of striking gold. The process of going through years of investment history for thousands of investors is costly, and some investors may end up with chump change of $10 or less, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Now that 529 College Saving Plans are here to stay, the NASD has developed an online course to help advisers and others better understand them.

Despite their warm reception, it seems that hedge funds-of-funds may not be as smart an investment as they at first seemed, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The NASD fined American Funds Distributors $5 million on Aug. 30 for violating the NASD anti-reciprocal rule that precludes investment companies from directing trades to brokerage firms in exchange for preferential sales treatment for their funds.

Starting in 2010, millions of American workers could get the chance to have their retirement savings cake and eat it, too.

The mutual fund industry has seen strong inflows thus far this year, and the market outlook appears stable for the rest of the year, pointing to a generally promising outlook for 2006, according to a report from Strategic Insight of New York.

As the new executive director of the Mutual Fund Directors Forum in Washington, Susan Ferris Wyderko hopes to help independent fund directors do their job better and increase the not-for-profit organizations responsiveness to directors needs. This is her first job out of public service in more than two decades, although she believes her new role allows her to continue to indirectly serve the best interests of the investing public.

Edward D. Jones reached a tentative settlement on nine class-action lawsuits for not telling investors it accepted revenue-sharing payments from mutual fund companies to promote their funds. The settlement still must be approved by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. The $127 million settlement calls for $55 million in cash and $72.5 million in non-cash vouchers to current customers over three years. In addition, the company must cover legal fees.

Hedge funds are beginning to demand new and innovative technology, and their investment in IT is expected to reach $3.3 billion by 2009, according to a Datamonitor report.

With students returning to school and media interest in 529 college savings plans renewed by the new pension bill, John Hancock College Savings has launched a seven-week campaign to promote its 529 plan, which it offers through Alaska. The campaign includes educational tools and sales and direct mail ideas that financial advisers can use to explain 529 plans to parents, as well as a kit that includes a slide ruler showing the cost of college and estimated savings needed for children of various ages. Parents can view these figures as a lump-sum amount or in monthly or annual payments.