Special Program Root Tag

In an effort to give financial advisers more options and greater flexibility when designing retirement plans for their clients, 401kDirect next week will introduce a new plan including exchange-traded funds and collective investment funds. The new plan will be introduced officially at the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries Summit in Orlando.

Aiming to compete with increasingly popular alternative investments and to increase performance in a weak market, many mutual fund managers have adopted strategies previously associated with hedge funds, according to The Wall Street Journal. .

On the heels of its deal with BlackRock and pressure from Princeton University, Merrill Lynch has decided not to name its mutual funds unit Princeton Portfolio Research and Management, the Daily Princetonian reports.

The "Rodney Dangerfields" of the mutual fund world over the past number of years, receiving little respect, money market funds, once again, are finally having their day in the sun, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

The union of Merrill Lynch's and BlackRock's asset management arms, the biggest deal ever, is likely to continue to boost the stocks of publicly traded asset management firms, Bloomberg reports. In fact, over the past year, shares of the world's 50 biggest money firms have risen an average 42% 3/4 nearly four times the Morgan Stanley Capital International's World Index.

Strong inflows and a robust stock market are driving continued growth in the mutual fund industry in 2006, Strategic Insight reported Tuesday. Assets in mutual funds in the U.S. reached $9.9 trillion at the end of January.

MIAMI -- If the Securities and Exchange Commission truly aims to increase transparency within the mutual fund industry, it should stop requiring companies to deliver paper disclosure materials and encourage electronic innovations in shareholder communication, said Robert C. Pozen, chairman of MFS Investment Management.

Watch out BGI, because Claymore Investments has just launched an ETF that will be traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The FTSE RAFI Canadian Index Fund will the first to be launched in Canada, according to the National Post.

After a year filled with mergers, one may think that mutual funds that specialize in investing in this sector, would likewise surge. However, despite the recent increase in mergers, these funds are delivering lackluster returns, according to The Wall Street Journal.

As more and more employers shift from defined benefit to defined contribution plans, trustees of California Public Employees' Retirement System continue to buck the trend, and highlight the difficulty of converting public plans, according to the Sacramento Bee. .

It's been two years since Morningstar began issuing its stewardship grades, where the Chicago-based analyst rates mutual funds on items ranging from regulatory issues to corporate cultures, and along the way they've picked up a few, little-known tidbits about some well-known funds.

Newly minted Securities and Exchange Commission General Counsel Brain Cartwright told the Mutual Fund Directors Forum last week that going forward, independent directors would serve as the centerpiece of the mutual fund regulatory regime.

Although it is the world's top-selling fund manager on the retail side, Capital Group has reportedly suffered institutional outflows of more than $40 billion. American Funds, which is Cap Group's retail mutual fund subsidiary, had net inflows of $80 billion in 2005, making it the best-selling mutual fund group for the fourth straight year.

Arizona is among the states with the worst 529 college savings plan, according to the most recent Morningstar rating, but the plan's director thinks it wasn't accurately evaluated. Morningstar was particularly critical of Pacific Life and Securities Management Research, two of the plan's providers. Fidelity Investments and Waddell & Reed also support Arizona's 529, although Morningstar did not criticize them.

There's a story the folks at the James Advantage Funds like to tell about the last bull market, when the contrarian lost close to $600 million in assets by largely ignoring the tech boom. Instead of battening down the hatches and letting a few people go, its founder, Dr. Frank James, paid all 19 employees out of his own pocket and rode out the storm.

In order to achieve greater flexibility and improve efficiencies, one of the first open-end mutual funds to wholly embrace hedge fund-like investment strategies will be seeking a face-lift of sorts.

You can't necessarily judge a mutual fund by its "Lance Face."

There's certainly no love lost between Wall Street and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, but it appears the would-be governor can add former General Electric CEO Jack Welch to the "do-not-call" list for campaign contributions.

London-based Henderson Global Investors has launched a new Japan-Asia Focus fund, investing in Japanese and other Asian companies. "We are excited about launching this fund right now, because we believe that the Japanese economy may be poised for long-term expansion," said Sean Dranfield, Henderson director of North American retail distribution.

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