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Equity and balanced funds containing a mix of stocks and bonds will take in a record $330 billion this year, according to Strategic Insight. This will top $307 billion these funds reaped in 2000.

Mellon Financial Corp. announced this week it has completed its purchase of Providence Group Investment Advisory Co.

Tax accounting franchise H&R Block agreed to pay regulators $825,000 to settle allegations that it helped a hedge fund customer engage in abusive trading practices that harmed mutual fund shareholders.

Although some mutual fund insiders have argued that privatizing Social Security would not be a boon for the industry because the account sizes would be small and the fees would be scant, other executives are circumspectly throwing their support behind the idea, The New York Times reports. Reluctant to come out publicly in favor of privatization for fear of being accused of wanton greed, fund companies are reportedly backing the proposal behind the scenes through trade associations, business groups, conservative think tanks and campaign donations.

ADP Brokerage Services Group, a division of Automatic Data Processing, announced Tuesday that its software unit will team up with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation to upgrade year-end tax reporting for its customers on more than 12,000 mutual funds, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and other securities whose tax status is restructured at the end of the year.

BISYS announced Tuesday it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire RK Consulting, a hedge fund and private equity administration company that is an affiliate of international accounting and consulting firm Rothstein Kass. The companies didn’t disclose terms of the deal. Upon closing, BISYS will have more than $180 billion in hedge fund and private equity assets under administration.

Schwab Institutional, which provides custody and trading support for fee-based investment advisers, has pledged a donation of $300,000 over the next three years to the Financial Planning Association’s National Financial Planning Support Center.

Franklin Resources, parent company of the Franklin Templeton family of mutual funds, said it will eliminate one of its funds in the wake of a scandal in which a broker used misleading sales practices.

The HighMark Funds new website received exactly that when it was declared the winner of the Web Marketing Association’s 2004 "Best of Industry" award in the mutual fund category.

California regulators on Monday filed a securities fraud lawsuit against brokerage house Edward D. Jones alleging the firm failed to disclose shelf space payments it received from seven mutual funds to promote and sell those funds.

Fidelity Investments fined its high-profile head of stock trading, Scott De Sano, amid a federal probe of its gift-giving and business entertainment activities, the Wall Street Journal reports.

A Securities and Exchange Commission employee is under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for attempting to win a bribe from an executive at a company regulated by the nation’s top securities regulator, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report.

The distributor and investment advisor for the Franklin Templeton family of mutual funds has agreed to pay $20 million to settle charges that they made ill use of brokerage commissions.

Fidelity Investments is gearing up for a fight with federal regulators now questioning a business relationship between a pair of siblings who handle a fraction of the fund giant's trading business. Fidelity trader David K. Donovan and his younger brother, Peter Donovan, an employee of Bank of American Securities, are under investigation for forging an improper business relationship, attorneys close to the case told The Boston Globe last week.

Say it ain't so, Fido.

Managed account platform providers, those vendors who provide various services to financial services companies that offer managed account services to wealthy clients, may be able to boast about tremendous growth in assets in the years ahead, but they are nonetheless in for some challenges.

The largest scandal in the mutual fund industry's 80-year history has prompted regulators to revamp how funds conduct business by implementing a series of reforms. Dozens of firms have been sued and accused of fraud, a handful of executives are facing criminal charges and investors have realized how little they really know about how their retirement dollars are being invested.

First Command Financial Services, a leading seller of financial products to military personnel, agreed last Wednesday to pay $12 million to settle allegations that it used shady sales practices to pitch mutual funds to thousands of enlisted men and women over the last five years.

SEC Governor Cynthia Glassman once again spoke out vehemently against the Commission's new rule that will require fund boards to have independent chairmen. "This debate is not over," she said, referring to a lawsuit that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has brought against the SEC and a request by Congress for the Commission to look at the effects of the new rule.

Investment Company Inst. Names Ahearn to PR Post, Reid as Chief Economist