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Detroit-based Comercia is expected to sell its mutual fund division, Munder Capital Management.

A Federal jury in New York found Stephen Treadway, the former chief executive officer of Pimco Advisors Distributors and the former chairman of the board of the Pimco equity funds, guilty on June 30 of permitting hedge fund Canary Capital Partners to market time the funds, in the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil lawsuit against him. The first trial decision in a market-timing case by regulators, it was held in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

As fund companies and their intermediaries continue to grapple with the finer points of the Securities and Exchange Commission's looming redemption fee rule, industry groups have been working on ways to make complying less complicated.

The second of two lawsuits filed against large banks in as many weeks, if decided in favor of the various plaintiffs, has the potential to threaten the entire landscape of bank proprietary mutual funds.

As more Americans crack open their retirement nest eggs, many are turning toward dividend-bearing investments in a scramble for greater security.

T. Rowe Price plans to double the size of its Colorado Springs, Colo., campus, adding a $55 million building to support nearly 900 additional employees. Construction on the 145,000-square-foot building is set to begin in July, pending local permits, and to be completed by the end of 2007. Once complete, the facility will increase the total capacity of the 31-acre campus to 1,400 workers, leaving room enough on the site for two additional buildings and up to 2,000 employees in the future.

Morningstar has added hedge fund information to its website for individual investors and to its adviser workstation for financial planners, rounding out the availability of the information, which heretofore had only been available to institutional customers since 2005.

SEC Names Schock Acting Dir. of Investor Education

TIAA-CREF's deal to acquire a provider of planned-giving services to colleges and other not-for-profit entities may help it improve cross-selling to institutional clients, analysts said, as its market share dwindles in the college savings market. Analysts said the New York company may be focusing on institutional customers because it has had a difficult time retaining share with retail customers saving for college. TIAA-CREF's 529 college savings business has lost three states and nearly half its market share in the past two years.

Northern Trust's three new open architecture, multi-manager mutual funds are the first in a series aimed at helping wealthy investors better allocate their assets with smaller investment managers.

Confidence among affluent investors and millionaires declined considerably in June, according to a survey released Wednesday by Spectrem Group, a Chicago research company.

Vanguard filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to remove the name VIPER from its 24 exchange-traded funds, effective Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Don Cassidy is retiring from his position as senior research analyst at Lipper, and as of Monday, he will run the nonprofit Retirement Investing Institute from his home. Cassidy, 61, worked for 16 years at Lipper.

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

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.

MetLife has decided to sell its small and midsize 401(k) business after determining that gaining enough market share to make the business worthwhile would be too costly.

While China's stock market and mutual fund industry have been soaring over the past year, government think-tank State Council Development Research Center is warning that profitability may not be sustained, China Daily reports.

If the commissioners of the Securities and Exchange Commission need proof that the independent chairman rule effects positive change at funds, the independent director of the funds at AIM Investments could attest that it does, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Thrivent Investment Management has introduced a mutual fund that combines all income-producing asset classes. Called the Thrivent Diversified Income Fund, it invests in high yield bonds, investment-grade bonds, dividend-paying stocks, real estate investment trust equities and other securities.

Rather than using lifecycle funds as they are intended - a way to achieve broad diversification and periodic reallocations with the broad stroke of a single investment - many investors are using them as a part of their portfolios, Vanguard found, according to an AP report. Worse yet, some are laddering their investments in multiple lifecycle funds.