Special Program Root Tag

Although the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Edward Jones for $75 million in 2004 for not disclosing revenue-sharing agreements with a select group of mutual funds, the brokerage has continued the practice, and quite profitably.

NASD has filed a complaint against A.B. Watley Direct, Inc. and its former representatives, Robert Conway and Kenneth Ng. NASD charged them with facilitating late trading and improper market timing of mutual funds on behalf of hedge fund clients.

The May 1 deadline is coming up for entries to SourceMedia's Fourth Annual Fund Operations Awards, as presented by Money Management Executive.

Although regulators have recovered more than $4 billion from mutual fund companies for late trading and market timing since 2003, investors have been overly charged an amount far in excess of that, Vanguard founder and longtime shareholder activist John Bogle says.

After folding the existing $72 billion in institutional pension assets Fidelity Investments had under management into Pyramis Global Advisors last year, Pyramis has since grown by another $20 billion through a combination of market appreciation and new business, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The NASD announced Wednesday it has fined American General Securities, a unit of American International Group, more than $1.1 million for accepting directed-brokerage payments to promote certain mutual funds, in violation of the NASD's anti-reciprocal rule.

International funds made up of small- and mid-sized companies may be a victim of their own stellar success, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Investments in hedge funds will grow by 28% in 2006 due to inflows from Asia and the Mideast, according to a survey released by Goldman Sachs, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reports. Goldman Sachs polled 467 investor groups to complete this study.

The Principal Financial Group has expanded its support to advisers, as the company has added additional resources for advisers including business development assistance, marketing advice and sales tools.

The 2006 EBRI Retirement Confidence Survey results are out, and Americans' retirement hopes are like Swiss cheese, the survey concludes--full of holes. A large majority of Americans expect that they will enjoy their retirement years, but too many have not actually taken any steps to make their hopes a reality. Thus, their confidence levels are just not realistic.

Amvescap has promoted Phil Taylor from head of the firm's Canadian money management division to head of all North American mutual fund operations, including AIM Investments, Bloomberg reports, citing a letter that Amvescap CEO Martin Flanagan sent to employees Monday.

Despite the market, 70% of money managers are bullish on large-cap growth stocks, according to the latest findings of a Russell survey.

Fidelity Investments will close its $63.8 billion Contrafund, currently its largest, to new investments as of April 28, Bloomberg reports. The fund has delivered an average annual return of 10% over the past five years, handily beating the S&P 500, which has averaged not quite 4% a year in that timeframe.

Small-cap, gold and China funds delivered double-digit returns in the first quarter of the year, outperforming diversified U.S. equity funds' returns of 6.67% and large-caps' 3.07%, according to Lipper data, the Associated Press reports.

Dividends are in demand, according to the Wall Street Journal Online.

Not all asset managers that run foreign funds use fair valuation to determine the true value of their underlying holdings, a survey of 77 investment firms by Deloitte & Touche.

Houston-based AIM Investments will launch seven new mutual funds, the company announced Friday.

London-based Schroders, has launched two new funds as part of the firm's ongoing North American expansion.

Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Guinness Atkinson Asset Management announced Friday it plans to launch a new no-load Asia Pacific Dividend Fund.

Only three months have gone by since the passing of 2005, and already the ETF arena seems to have changed, according to The Wall Street Journal.