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Fidelity Investments will spend $100 million to build a facility in Wake County, North Carolina, Governor Mike Easley announced last week.

As the list of companies embroiled in the brouhaha surrounding backdated options continues to grow, the effect on their stocks, and the mutual funds that hold them, seems to be shrinking.

Robert Hetzer, a former senior vice president in charge of mutual fund trading at Fiserv Securities, will pay more than $600,000 to settle allegations from the Securities and Exchange Commission that he engaged in late trading of mutual funds in his own account. Hetzer, of Hollywood Beach, Fla., did not admit or deny the SEC charges.

To attract more conservative investors, a growing number of states are adding federally insured bank products to their 529 college savings plans.

Crooks are increasingly swindling money from senior citizens by directing them into bad investment choices. By one estimate, according to the AARP, there are five million victims of elder financial abuse each year.

Fred Alger Selects Adams, Shen as Research Execs

For at least three mutual funds, charity clearly begins at home.

Mutual fund retention rates jumped to record highs over the last two years, a sign that "smart" investors have been the driving force of the recent bull market.

Morningstar reported Thursday that its second-quarter profit rose 18% to $11.2 million, or 24 cents a share, compared to $9.5 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier.

With investments by private equity firms reshaping corporate finance, and driven by the promise of higher returns, mutual funds are beginning to invest in private equity--in spite of the fact they have traditionally stayed away from such illiquid and volatile investments, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Critics of the Pension Protection Act, now pending in the Senate, fear that by allowing mutual fund, brokerage and insurance companies to steer workers into specific options in 401(k) plans through the guise of advice--they will only foist their own wares on them, The Wall Street Journal reports.

With the Legg Mason Value Trust falling 5.7% in the second quarter and 10% through the first six months of the year, Bill Miller, the famed portfolio manager of Legg Mason's $18.1 billion flagship fund, has asked investors in his most recent shareholder letter to be patient, MarketWatch reports. By comparison, the S&P 500 declined 1.4% in the second quarter and about 7% for the year.

Buyout firms Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group are poised to offer hedge funds.

While Fidelity Investments has gone through a number of sweeping changes in the past few years, they are not about to abate, Vice Chairman Robert Reynolds tells Financial Times. "If you don't like what's happening at Fidelity, stay around a few years and it will change," said Reynolds, who recently challenged employees of the firm to double assets by 2010.

When Christopher Cox took office as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission a year ago, investor advocates took note of his firm business ties, fearing he would undo many of the regulations that were put in place during the active crackdown on fraud throughout William Donaldson's watch.

Fidelity Investments will spend $100 million to build a facility in Wake County, North Carolina, Governor Mike Easley announced yesterday.

Because there has been growing speculation that as Baby Boomers begin to retire and cash in their investments, and the sell off could seriously upset the markets, the Government Accountability Office conducted a study to see if that could be true, The Wall Street Journal reports.

An increasing number of financial experts have begun slamming exchange-traded funds as too numerous, too specialized and not necessarily inexpensive, due to their trading costs.

A week before the case was scheduled to go to trial, investors in American Century mutual funds dropped a lawsuit over the fees the funds charge, Bloomberg reports. They had accused the company of charged retail customers more than institutional investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday charged three former Janus Capital executives with violating federal securities laws and prospectus provisions by allowing or facilitating improper frequent trading arrangements. The three are Warren Lammert, who was the portfolio manager of the Janus Mercury Fund; Lars Soderberg, who was former executive vice president; and Lance Newcomb, former sales director.