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AIM Investments has launched AIM Global Real Estate Fund and two Allocation Solutions Funds, the AIM Moderately Conservative Allocation Fund and the AIM Moderate Growth Allocation Fund.

Integrity Mutual Funds, a Minot, Tenn.-based mutual fund and financial services company, has launched a new free cash flow fund, the Integrity Growth & Income Fund.

The NASD has reached a settlement with Waddell & Reed over allegations that the money manager profited heavily from inappropriately switching the variable annuities of more to 5,000 customers.

SEI Investments will provide an operations outsourcing solution for MFS Investment Management's rapidly growing separate account business.

The mutual fund arm of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce says it has implemented a fair-value pricing method for some of its investment funds, according to a report from Reuters.

Paul Roye, former top mutual fund regulator at the Securities and Exchange Commission is going to work for mutual fund giant Capital Research & Management, Reuters reports.

Mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments announced Monday a major restructuring that includes replacing Abigail Johnson, the chairman's daughter, with a committee to run its money management arm, Reuters reports.

After months of chipping away at the nation's biggest fund company, American Funds finally surpassed Fidelity Investments as the second-largest U.S. fund group in March, according to data from Financial Research Corp released last Wednesday.

Overall, inflows in stock and bond mutual funds, or long-term funds, rose 15% in March from the previous month, jumping to $28.4 billion from $24.6 billion in February.

A report released on April 22 from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Washington, gives the Securities and Exchange Commission a lukewarm grade of "C" in its lack of detecting the market-timing abuses that plagued the mutual fund industry and how it has flexed its regulatory muscle since the slew of secret deals were uncovered.

MFS Investment Management Chairman Robert Pozen detailed his "progressive indexing" proposal before the Senate Finance Committee in Washington on Tuesday, claiming it could close the long-term deficit dilemma confronting Social Security by more than 70%.

A proposed amendment to the already-adopted National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) model legislation calling for broker disclosure is already raising serious concerns.

Total assets in the nation's exchange-traded funds in March reached $228.7 billion, up 2.2% from $223.86 billion in February, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Starting this week, Fidelity Investments will implement a handful of new appointments. Matthew W. Fruhan has been named portfolio manager of Fidelity Large Cap Stock Fund. Fruhan, who will succeed Karen Firestone, has managed Fidelity Select Financial Services Portfolio, Fidelity Advisor Financial Services Fund and VIP Financial Services Portfolio, and served as financial services sector leader, since April 2004.

Lord Abbett Taps Bartlett as Director of Growth Equity

Some may consider values like financial strength, integrity and humanity a bit stodgy for an advertising campaign by a financial services company in the 21st century, but not at New York Life.

Nuveen Investments plans to launch a new closed-end exchange-traded fund this month that will invest in call and put options in order to enhance performance and hedge against downside risk. It will be called the Nuveen Equity Premium Advantage Fund.

Fidelity Investments is closing its $2.1 billion International Small Cap Fund on May 5 to most new investors after assets increased almost threefold since the beginning of 2004.

Privatization of Social Security could be very risky business, considering that personal accounts would put money in the hands of many Americans who are woefully ignorant of the basics of the economic system and common investment vehicles, such as mutual funds, The New York Times reported last week.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is urging mutual funds to utilize its newly launched volunteer program to report key financial information via Microsoft's eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), a code that enables documents to be filed on EDGAR in a uniform manner.