Special Program Root Tag

Evergreen Investments and OppenheimerFunds will jointly assume responsibility for State Street subsidiary Schoolhouse Capital’s management of New Mexico’s 529 college savings plan.

Nate Most, who is credited with inventing the first exchange-traded fund, died at his home in San Francisco on Dec. 3. He was 90 years old, IndexUniverse.com reports.

The fast-growing hedge fund industry has overstated its promise to give investors above-average returns and instead concealed often mediocre performances through opaque reporting techniques, The New York Times reports.

A number of Janus Capital’s proprietary investments are generating upper-quartile performances, but investors, who were burned by the company's previous blunders with technology stocks and subsequent regulatory problems, are now keeping their distance, Rocky Mountain News reports.

UBS AG announced this week that it has signed an agreement to buy Julius Baer Group's North American wealth management business.

The PowerShares Golden Dragon Halter USX China Portfolio has begun trading on the American Stock Exchange as PJX. The fund mirrors PowerShares Capital Management’s Halter USX China Index, which invests in companies that are listed in the United States but derive the bulk of their revenues from China.

Citigroup, Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. are the top three earners of mutual fund and annuity fee income in the first three quarters of this year, according to the latest Bank Holding Company Insurance & Investment Fee Income Report from Michael White Associates.

Environmental activists lashed out at U.S. mutual fund providers this week for systematically backing management decisions to bury pertinent facts about the real economic costs of industrial emissions that lead to global warming, Reuters reports.

California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, paid more than $200 million in fees to private investment advisors who handled its riskiest investments, The New York Times reports.

Oakmark Funds has named Chad Clark as co-portfolio manager of The Oakmark International Small Cap Fund. Clark will step in for Michel Welsh, the co-manager of the Oakmark International Fund and Oakmark Global Fund, on Jan. 28. David Herro, chief investment officer of international equities, has managed the International Small Cap Fund since its inception in 1995. The fund closed to new investors in 2002.

T. Rowe Price has launched a new 401(k) plan targeting sole proprietors who typically sock away retirement savings in SEP-IRA or profit-sharing retirement plans.

Not only have investors stood by scandal-tainted funds’ side, but so have 401(k) plan sponsors. Despite the steady uproar from shareholder activists since numerous mutual fund providers fell under regulators’ swords last year, few employers have gotten around to making administrative changes in their 401(k) plans.

BISYS Group, which provides back-office and marketing support to mutual fund clients, has just indicated in an SEC filing that the Commission is looking at how it allocates marketing and distribution payments on behalf of some of its clients.

SEC Governor Cynthia Glassman once again spoke out vehemently against the Commission’s new rule that will require fund boards to have independent chairmen. Speaking before a gathering of public pension directors Monday, Glassman said the benefits of the new rule have not been "supported by any empirical data."

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer made his long-anticipated run for governor official Tuesday, by announcing his 2006 candidacy on the Democratic ticket.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s unprecedented new rulemaking is likely to subside in coming months, the Associated Press reports. Still, Chairman William Donaldson is expected to remain in his position in President Bush’s second term, which will mean a more active Commission overseen by a man who does not balk at fighting big business.

Legg Mason, which has been in Baltimore since 1899, is looking for new headquarters and is considering finding a signature building, the Baltimore Business Journal reports. But the firm is also weighing renewing its lease on Light Street or moving to the suburbs, real estate brokers said.

Investors appear willing to forgive funds that have been tainted by the fund scandal as long as they deliver strong performance, USA Today reports.

Index Development Partners, a nascent exchange-traded funds provider, is bulking up to break into the market by preparing variations of actively managed investments, which it is calling "performance indexes," CBS MarketWatch reports.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to consider proposals aimed at tackling murky directed-brokerage practices that shareholder advocates say drive up mutual fund expenses with unnecessary trading fees, The Wall Street Journal reports.