Special Program Root Tag

Only a few years ago exchange-traded funds were considered obscure investments, but today, serious investors are reportedly building entire portfolios from the fast-growing investment category through brokerage accounts, Dow Jones News reports.

Managers Investment Group finalized plans this week to acquire $3 billion of customer assets from Freemont Investment Advisors.

Disgruntled mutual fund investors filed lawsuits against more than 40 of the largest U.S. mutual fund providers for failing to collect and distribute billions of dollars by neglecting to file claim for money from settlements of former shareholder lawsuits, The New York Times reports.

The privatization of Social Security, high on President Bush's agenda this year, is not enough to address the program's looming shortfall, says House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.). At a pre-inaugural forum sponsored by National Journal magazine on Tuesday, Thomas said the problem of funding the Social Security system would not go away by creating personal accounts, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Hedge funds are unlikely to keep up with their gains of the past, according to a new study by Greenwich Associates. The study, released Tuesday, said that increasing assets, an abundance of new managers and a limited number of trading opportunities could restrain hedge fund performance this year.

Scandal be damned. Mutual funds had a fabulous 2004, Bloomberg News reports. Assets in U.S.-based stock, bond and money-market funds surged to $7.9 trillion last November, according to Investment Company Institute data, from $7.4 trillion at the end of 2003. To put that $500 billion increase in perspective, the entire fund industry consisted of $500 billion in 1985.

Cautious of practices like market timing and late trading, retirement plan providers are performing complete security checks of the mutual funds they entrust their investments to, Pensions and Investments reports .

Large-cap actively managed funds were the only sector that outperformed index funds in 2004

The lackluster stock market performance so far this year may foreshadow a weak year for equity fund investors who subscribe to a theory known as "the January effect," Reuters reports.

A disgruntled investment manager who was fired from Putnam Investments has slapped her former employer with a $25 million sex-discrimination lawsuit, accusing the firm of fomenting a chauvinistic work atmosphere, the Associated Press reports.

The 10 largest equity mutual funds of 1999 have seen their assets fall $138 billion as poor performance and scandals have sent investors fleeing, according to USA Today.

Only a few years ago exchange-traded funds were considered obscure investments, but today, serious investors are reportedly building entire portfolios from the fast-growing investment category through brokerage accounts, Dow Jones News reports.

Self-employed individuals are the latest group to be targeted by several asset management companies, which are providing them with individual 401(k)s, or solo 401(k)s, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Penelope Dobkin, who manages Fidelity Advisor Diversified International Fund, is banking on technology, health care and emerging markets

Revenue-sharing practices at Edward D. Jones that are now being questioned by regulators generated $82.4 million for the firm last year.

Thomas O'Neill, a former Piper Jaffray stock broker, is facing fines of up to $1.5 million and 10 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to wire fraud and securities fraud in a Missoula, Mont. federal court, The Missoulian reported.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is urging a federal appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that targets a controversial new SEC rule for independent chairs of mutual funds.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is urging a federal appeals court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that targets a controversial new SEC rule for independent chairs of mutual funds.

Mutual fund companies have turned over a new leaf in the wake of the scandals that hit the industry in the fall of 2003. Since last October, the S&P 500 Asset Management and Custody Banks Index has seen a 12% price gain, compared to the 5% increase in the S&P 500, Forbes reports.

Two brokerage firms reached settlements in market-timing and late-trading charges last week. Dallas broker/dealer Southwest Securities agreed last Monday to pay $10 million for allegedly failing to prevent its registered reps from submitting market-timing and late-trading mutual fund trades. Three managers and two brokers were also named in the suit, which the New York Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed jointly.