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Morningstar's nearly 20-year span of unbroken growth came to a halt in recent months after security regulators began to probe the firm's new business ventures, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

Strong Financial Corp. has turned over a new leaf in hopes of regaining assets after widely publicized scandals ousted its founder and prompted a sale to Wells Fargo & Co, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune reports.

Oak Associates announced Tuesday it has launched the Rock Oak Core Growth Fund, a portfolio that will seek long-term growth by investing in demographic trends.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans has pledged $3 million in aid to the victims of the tsunami disaster in South Asia, $1 million in an outward donation and $2 million to match any contributions by its 2.8 million investors through April 15.

Fidelity Investments has announced five new portfolio managers on its Select funds group.

The Internal Revenue Service has just issued guidance on a rule that has been on the books since 2001 to prevent employers from liquidating 401(k) rollover accounts with values between $1,000 and $5,000, The Washington Post reports.

Canadian mutual fund companies cut back drastically on their advertising expenditures in 2004, shelling out a mere $11 million (C$13.5 million), down 80% from $55 million (C$67.3 million) in 2000, the Canadian Press reports.

With foreign stock mutual funds delivering an average 12.7% gain over the past three years versus 4.9% for domestic stock funds, more investors are investing in international funds, which is depressing the U.S. dollar even further, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has requested information from Warren Buffet's General Re about the sale of products to generate steadier earnings, making it the seventh insurer the SEC has investigated since New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer launched his investigation into bid-rigging and price fixing.

The trading scandal has put the Canadian fund industry through the ringer in the past year. But Investment Executive columnist James Langton believes that despite the precedent-setting cases and record $200 million in fines and disgorgement (US$166 million), investors have reason to remain dissatisfied.

Index and exchange-traded funds held special lure for investors during the final years of the bull market for their broad exposure to the stock market. Then, when the bear market hit, they became popular for their low costs. This year, added benefits of ETFs seems to be their tax efficiency and protection from trading abuses, CBSMarketWatch reports.

A rally in the fourth quarter boosted most equity funds, which rose an average of 13.6% for the year, well above the S&P 500's 9% gain, the Associated Press reports.

AIM Investments announced Thursday it has renamed the AIM International Emerging Growth Fund the AIM International Small Company Fund, to better reflect the fund's investment objective and holdings in line with the SEC's fund names rule that dictates a fund's name is represented by at least 80% of its holdings.

In the final hours of Legg Mason Value Trust's struggle to maintain its lengthy winning streak against the Standard & Poor's 500, a new and lesser-known portfolio manager may emerge as Wall Street's king of steadfast performance, CBS MarketWatch reports.

Looking back on 2004, NASD announced it had collected $102 million in fines, filed 1,360 enforcement actions and barred or suspended 830 people.

Regulators are turning their attention toward J.P. Morgan Chase for its role in facilitating improper trades by Canary Capital Partners, the New York-based hedge fund that touched off the far-reaching late-trading and market-timing mutual fund scandals, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Bridgeway Ultra-Small Company Fund appears ready to end 2004 as the fund with the best-performing 10-year performance record.

Mutual funds had stronger net inflows in November than in the month before or the year earlier, Financial Research Corp. has reported.

A recent media campaign assailing other broker/dealers for improper conduct has come back to bite Edward D. Jones & Co., The Wall Street Journal reports.

Investment professionals are already looking forward to a halo-effect of strong market performance beginning on the first trading days of 2005 and possibly extending into February, the Associated Press reports.