Special Program Root Tag

According to the Investment Company Institute, the combined assets of the nation's mutual funds increased by $92.6 billion, or 1.1 percent, to $8.216 trillion in June. In the survey, mutual fund companies reported actual assets, sales and redemptions.

As it set aside more money for an anticipated settlement over its mutual fund trading practices, Federated Investors reported that its second-quarter net income fell by 25%, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.

Embattled Amerindo Investment Advisors founder Alberto Vilar, whose sputtering Amerindo Technology Fund was folded into the Munder Internet Fund on July 18, pleaded not guilty late last week to new charges of conspiracy and wire fraud, the Wall Street Journal reports.

David Brady isn't getting the attention of the board of trustees of Columbia Young Investor. Despite an offer that Brady thought was impossible to refuse (to take over the mutual fund that he formerly ran while charging investors substantially less), the board didn't even blink when rejecting him.

In a deal that could be the first step in building its own bill-payment service, Fiserv has agreed to purchase BillMatrix, which provides customers with a way to make last-minute payments.

Investment Company Institute President Paul Schott Stevens has commended the Securities and Exchange Commission on its choice of confirming Representative Christopher Cox as its chairman.

Weighing heavily towards value versus growth, mutual fund stock investors added close to $150 billion to their holdings during the first six months of 2005, according to the New York-based research firm Strategic Insight.

The board of directors of the Amerindo Technology Fund, a portfolio of Amerindo Funds, Inc., approved an agreement and plan of reorganization of the fund into the Munder Internet Fund on July 18, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fund giant Fidelity Investments is having a hard time generating sales for its mutual funds this year due to the losses of its once-mighty flagship fund, the Fidelity Magellan Fund, Boston Globe columnist Steven Syre writes.

BISYS Group is inching closer to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over some rusty marketing and distribution agreements it has with a handful of its mutual fund services clients, although the exact nature of its transgressions remain unclear.

With advisory firms and brokerage houses that sell mutual funds increasingly looking to outsource activities to third-party service providers, NASD is now calling for more detailed oversight of vendors and explicit written policies and procedures.

It appears that reports of the retail registered investment advisor's death have been greatly exaggerated.

The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved President Bush's nomination of Rep. Christopher Cox to replace William Donaldson as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Nasdaq Stock Market has created an enhanced index platform that will allow the firm to "calculate and disseminate an unlimited number of indexes on a real-time basis."

Wilmington Trust Corp. posted higher second-quarter profits late last month on the strength of its regional banking and wealth advisory businesses, along with slower growth of business expenses.

Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price is widely expected to soon join some of its key competitors in setting up an asset management venture in India, news reports from Asia speculate.

Jeffery Vinik may have left the spotlight to strike out on his own - but he isn't out of the money.

Births and deaths are facts of life, even in the fund industry. While Reserve Funds of New York, the father of the money market fund, has just launched a new and innovative cash management fund that expects to sport a boosted yield, American Century Investments of Kansas City, Mo., has just pulled the plug on its longest, novel Target Maturity Fund, which had been set to mature 25 years from now.

It's fun naming hedge funds. Think of an animal or river or Greek god and just run with it.

Now, broker/dealers not registered as investment advisors will be required to give brokerage customers a disclosure stating: "Our interests may not always be the same as yours." Timed to coincide with the compliance deadline for the rule, which the Securities and Exchange Commission adopted in April, the Financial Planning Association is releasing a brochure for clients that explains the difference between a brokerage account and an advisory account.