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Responding to the increasing popularity of exchange-traded funds, the assets of which have grown 36% over the past year to $9.32 trillion, asset management firms continue to bring new ETF products to market, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors has completed its acquisitionof Cambridge, Mass.-based MDT Advisers.

Fund tracker Morningstar announced plans to double its hedge fund coverage and significantly increase coverage of separately managed accounts through the acquisition of databases from InvestorForce of Wayne, Pa.

Buzz about Fidelity Investment's Magellan fund traveled quickly around the globe after manager Harry Lange took the helm last November, Reuters reports.

Sooner or later, hedge funds will be regulated, despite a U.S. court decision blocking the Securities and Exchange Commission from overseeing them, according to Bloomberg columnist Chet Currier. The $1.2 trillion hedge fund business has not escaped from regulators, but only postponed regulation, he said. And if Congress decides to handle it, they will be sorry they hadn't let the SEC do its job.

Designed as teaching tools, an increasing number of business schools have launched student-run mutual funds, and even opening them to investors, according to The Wall Street Journal.

While things like the environment and social concerns influence what people choose as investments, the bottom line is still what matters most, according to a survey released by TIAA-CREF.

Philadelphia-based Delaware Investments may not be managing Pennsylvania's college saving plans anymore, as the state is considering switching to a different investment manager, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. Delaware manages one of the state's two college saving plans and has $315 million in assets.

Securities and Exchange Commissioner Cynthia Glassman said "it is unfortunate [the SEC] wasted so much time and effort" on the independent chairman and the hedge fund registration rules, only to have them voided by the U.S. Court of Appeals.

In an effort to leave less to the imagination, members of the Securities and Exchange Commission last week unanimously approved the first set of soft dollar guidelines issued in 20 years. While some championed the guidelines as a boon to the business, others argued they do not go far enough.

Investment managers are positive about the future and are focused on revenue expansion rather than cost cutting, according to the "Global Investment Management Survey" from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study, based on interviews with chief executive officers from 81 firms around the world with assets of $9 trillion, found that 55% of CEOs believe their revenues will increase by 20% or more over the next three years. This is in stark contrast to the study findings three years ago, when chief executives were looking to cut costs.

Employees at Associated Agencies, an insurance company in Rolling Hills, Ill., have joined the small, but growing, number of workers with a new option for retirement savings: the Roth 401(k).

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. is planning to enhance its Mutual Fund Profile Service, expanding data to be more consistent with fund companies' prospectus rules and making it easier for funds to provide customer information to their distribution partners.

Legg Mason filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to streamline its mutual fund complex by merging U.S. funds and liquidating others, resulting in 119 funds as opposed to the current 166. Most of the former Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers funds will be re-branded Legg Mason Partners Funds.

With the Fed fund rate now at 5.25%. experts believe money market funds will soon reach yields of 5%, and when that happens, investors might move assets from equity to money market funds.

Putnam Lovell Appoints Goldberg Managing Dir.

Once you've achieved relative success, how do you keep the momentum going?

Workers nearing the retirement age are becoming savvier about preparing for retirement, with 64% of employees between the ages of 51 and 60 participating in a retirement plan in 2003, a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute of Washington shows. Participation among people in their 50s was the highest out of the other four age brackets, which were divided up every 10 years starting at age 21.

To help determine whether mutual funds or exchange-traded funds are best for a client, Rydex Investments of Rockville, Md., has launched an online trading expense calculator.

As expected, Aviva, Britain's largest insurer, is acquiring AmerUs Group for $2.9 billion. The two companies companies confirmed they were in talks last Friday.