Special Program Root Tag

PHOENIX - Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens announced last week that his organization has launched an initiative that would eventually move mutual fund disclosure documents almost exclusively online.

PHOENIX - Michael Koonce would be happy to offer his opinion on the Securities and Exchange Commission's new redemption fee rule. It's a pain in the neck.

PHOENIX - Mutual fund fees and expenses are too high, their trustees are asleep at the switch, competition from alternative investments is bearing down, and the money management industry, by and large, has failed the everyday investor.

Mutual funds that act like hedge funds may be more marketing than miracles, according to George Feiger, chief executive officer of Contango Capital Advisors, a financial adviser in Berkeley, Calif.

Fidelity Investments has struck an agreement with Amazon.com whereby it has set up a financial services destination, or so-called "store," to promote its mutual funds, retirement products, college savings offerings, IRAs, annuities and brokerage services.

Vanguard filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Monday to offer five additional target retirement funds, expanding its current lineup of five funds plus one income fund, which have a total of $10 billion in assets.

T. Rowe Price Chairman To Retire After 38 Years

NEW YORK - Whether big or small, market mavericks or believers in benchmarks, the chief investment officers of top-performing mutual funds share some common elements - including a strong sense of who they are, a good understanding of where they came from and perhaps, most importantly, a trained focus on where they want to be.

Yet another mutual fund advisor has chosen to shed its corporate name and rebrand itself, adding to the growing list of fund groups that recently have, or soon will, change their own names or those of their proprietary mutual funds.

Although large institutions have traditionally avoided emerging markets hedge funds, preferring their emerging market mutual fund brethren, the lofty returns of these specialty hedge funds in recent years is evidently making these investors think twice about the risky sector, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Are ethics something that should be considered when it comes to investing? Or should investors and managers wear blinders when it comes to where they are putting their money? Many mutual fund managers are considering this question due to the recent happenings in Sudan, Africa.

Total assets in AIM Investments' allocation products, a group of seven mutual funds offering investors a simple way to achieve asset allocation and diversification, have exceeded $1 billion, the company announced yesterday.

Standard & Poor's is going to roll out 11 indexes tied to housing prices next month, The Wall Street Journal reports. Ten of the indexes will be based on prices in major cities and the 11th will be a composite.

As Fidelity executives gathered for a meeting to discuss the defined benefit and defined contribution plans the firm manages for Hewlett-Packard, one of theirs laptops containing data on 196,000 of these retirement accounts was stolen, Boston news agencies are reporting. The database included names, addresses, birth dates and Social Security numbers.

Morgan Stanley's proprietary retail mutual funds are continuing to lose assets this year, losing $4 billion in the first quarter. This comes on top of steep outflows in 2005, The Wall Street Journal reports. In addition, its Van Kampen fund family, which Morgan sells through a variety of outside channels, is beginning to lose assets this year, as well, bleeding $161 million year-to-date.

Criminal charges have been filed against Dale Allen Jones, former president of the fallen Monarch International Holdings, for taking money from investors for a non-existent mutual fund, according to US Fed News.

The Board of Directors at Legg Mason Inc. has elected James W. Hirschmann as the new president, effective May 1. Raymond A. "Chip" Mason, who is the president, CEO and chairman, will continue in his role as chairman when Hirschmann takes on his role.

James S. Riepe, who retired as vice chairman of T. Rowe Price at the end of last year, has been named to serve on the board of directors of Genworth Financial.

Fidelity Investments has hired Young Chin to serve as the chief investment officer of its institutional Pyramis Global Advisors unit. Chin, a 28-yaer veteran of the investment management industry, was previously president and chief executive officer of Gartmore Global Investments and co-global equities investment officer of Gartmore Group.

A recent survey conducted by Little Grad, which offers college savings rebates on retail purchases, reveals that due to the growing costs of higher education, parents fear saving for their children's college education more than anything else these days.