Special Program Root Tag

Securities regulators have launched an informal probe of mutual fund and brokerage firms to determine whether brokers doled out lavish gifts to attract trading business.

The NASD has barred James B. Moorehead, a former broker with AmSouth Investment Services, from the securities industry for life for alleged fraud, forgery, and falsification of documents in connection with variable annuity sales.

Merrill Lynch reportedly may soon join the charge for financial service firms to begin offering registered funds of hedge funds in separately managed accounts. Separately managed accounts have for years outpaced mutual funds in capturing assets from affluent investors, but numerous operational and regulatory challenges complicate the prospect of integrating traditional hedge funds into portfolios of long-only investment strategies. But the recent surge of interest in registered hedge funds-of-funds may provide a solution to the SMA providers' dilemma.

With one big bat permanently missing from a once formidable lineup and another nursing a number of nagging injuries, the Denver mutual fund business is undoubtedly short on star power. But with the market rebounding, multiple fraud settlements conceivably behind it and several small shops on the rise, the industry is crawling back from the Styxian depths.

With the SEC poised to vote on what could be the biggest transformation to the New York Stock Exchange since its founding in 1792, fund companies still think the new rules are flawed.

Barely has the ink dried on what many in the industry, admittedly, are calling the single most important new fund regulation of 2004 and already PricewaterhouseCoopers is predicting a new tsunami wave of sanctions, within months not years, against these newly appointed chief compliance officers that will define the boundaries of industry practice.

Money managers began accumulating more equities and paring back on bonds after President Bush was reelected in November.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's formal dealings with mutual fund companies reportedly will continue into next year if the Commission follows through on plans to punish investment firms for failing to provide mutual fund board members with vital information.

Fidelity Investments Canada is about to slash mutual fund fees. Starting Jan. 10, Fidelity Canada's investors will pay 15 fewer basis points to purchase front-end load shares of the firm's equity, asset-allocation and balanced funds. The management fee on initial sales charge (ISC) units of Fidelity fixed income and money market funds will also drop by 25 basis points.

Erick Kanter, founder and president of Kanter & Associates and for more than a decade a public relations executive with the Investment Company Institute, died Nov. 23 of a brain aneurysm. His passing away at age 62 was sudden and unexpected, his firm said.

Schacht Executive Director Of Market Integrity Center

Exchange-traded funds have become a hot commodity in the past few years, as investors, soured by their mutual fund experience, have become increasingly allured by their low cost, versatility and tax efficiency. At last tally, the combined assets of the nation's ETFs stood at $190.51 billion as of the end of October, according to the Investment Company Institute. That's up from the nearly $151 billion in assets at the end of December 2003.

At first blush, it may appear to be the odd couple marriage of the 529 college savings plan market.

Fiduciary Analytics, a Sewickley, Pa.-based research company, is taking a different tack than Morningstar of Chicago in evaluating investment company fiduciary capabilities. Fiduciary Analytics' fiduciary rankings are based on quantitative measures. By contrast, Morningstar's ratings are primarily qualitative.

The money market fund industry shed $3.01 billion of assets during the one-week period ending Wednesday and settled at $825.62 billion last week, Associated Press reports.

Soon to retire Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) Thursday applauded the efforts of federal securities regulators for their continuing efforts to enact a series of mutual fund reforms that benefit individual investors.

Mutual funds that invest directly in commodities are receiving a lift from some investors who view the sagging U.S. dollar as a signal to diversify out of equity holdings, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Domestic stock funds rallied in November to post their best month this year, Investor’s Business Daily reports.

Assets held in exchange-traded funds grew 5% in October, according to data released by the Investment Company Institute Wednesday.

Just because a fund has an independent chairman does not mean it will charge lower fees or be more inclined than a management-run fund to comply with the law. That’s the finding of two finance professors at the Columbia College of Business at the University of Missouri, after studying 448 fund families, Newswise reports.