Special Program Root Tag

Stock and balanced funds took in $85 billion in the first quarter of 2005, according to Strategic Insight. The results reflect confidence among mutual fund investors in the face of stock market uncertainties, as well as a preference to offerings outside the U.S., said S.I. Director of Research Avi Nachmany.

NASD is considering tightening the noose on sales contests, since current rules may not adequately protect investors, according to Dow Jones Newswire.

At the Lipper Fund Awards in New York on Monday, First American Funds and Principal Financial Group were named best overall mutual fund families for 2005.

Janus Capital Group said on Monday that it had named Robert Parry to its board of directors, effective March 18.

As New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer readies up to run as a Democrat for New York State Governor next year, the back-and-forth between his camp and that of Republican Governor George Pataki is heating up, the Associated Press reports.

Money Management Executive and Source Media are accepting nominations for the third annual Fund Operations Awards.

Clark Inc., an employee compensation and benefits consultant, received a subpoena from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office on Friday in connection with the sale of its retirement products, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Canadian mutual funds may not be out of the woods just yet.

As a federally mandated registration deadline nears, many hedge fund managers are considering longer lock-up periods to elude the regulation, a recent report from Reuters indicates.

A private-equity consortium led by San Francisco-based Silver Lake Partners is in talks to buy SunGard Data Systems for as much as $10 billion, a move that would mark one of the biggest leveraged buyouts since the RJR Nabisco takeover, the New York Post reports.

State Street Corp. said on Thursday that it paid Chief Executive Officer Ronald Logue a $2.8 million bonus for 2004, raising his total compensation to $6 million, Reuters reports.

Alliance Capital Management Holding and Alliance Capital Management have entered into settlement discussions with the National Association of Securities Dealers about previous sales practices and disclosures concerning directed-brokerage commissions in Alliance Capital's mutual fund distribution unit.

The NASD has brought its first market-timing case involving variable universal life (VUL) policies. The organization has charged Jefferson Pilot Variable Corp. (JPVC) for "failing to have an adequate supervisory system in place to prevent market timing and excessive trading in the sub-accounts of its Ensemble series of VUL insurance policies."

Fidelity Investments has launched the Variable Insurance Product Freedom Funds, a series of seven lifecycle funds-of-funds that help investors choose an asset allocation strategy based on their stage in life and their expected retirement date.

New Jersey regulators last Tuesday revoked the licenses of three former Merrill Lynch brokers accused of fraud for conspiring with a hedge fund to make tens of thousands of market-timing trades netting $60 million for the fund.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Perhaps nobody captured the current mood of the mutual fund business better than Barry Barbash, a former Securities and Exchange Commission investment management director, when he told industry executives attending the annual Investment Company Institute meeting here last week that registration was still open for an upcoming "Regulatory Overload Conference."

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been soft-pedaling its expectations for mutual fund chief compliance officers recently in an effort to alleviate concerns that its new compliance rule would effectively make them a junior police squad for the regulatory agency.

Sales of exchange-traded funds have grown rapidly in the past three years, but the number of companies manufacturing them in the United States shrank to seven last year and is unlikely to grow, market participants said.

Despite suffering massive outflows in recent years, Janus Capital Group's chief investment officer, Gary Black, is confident that the company will deliver the sound performance necessary for the firm to make a turnaround by year-end.

In the latest development in a number of civil lawsuits nationwide, where mutual fund investors are alleging that several fund companies allowed improper trading, a federal judge last week lifted the ban on plaintiffs from using documents that would help them build their case against the companies.