Special Program Root Tag

Morningstar Managing Director Don Phillips has been a visible industry figure since the scandal broke, calling for investors to avoid certain shops entangled in the scandal as well as urging the industry to adopt several reforms. MME Associate Editor Chris Frankie sat down with Phillips just before the Morningstar Investment Conference to get his views on the ICI's new president, Congress and investors.

May 2003 was the worst month for Fidelity Investments, at least when it comes to bond and stock funds, according to Reuters.

For now, proposals to overhaul the safe-harbor provision are just those – proposals. A top Securities and Exchange Commission official said Thursday that 2005, not 2004, will be the year where the practice of using soft money for stock research and trading commissions might end, Reuters reports.

Save that cash and save it now because even a "black hole" would be an "optimistic" view of the 2005 markets, a Morningstar analyst said.

A U.S. District Court has shut down a Web site that impersonated a New Hampshire mutual fund company and promised investors 657% returns, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday

Mutual fund firms, even in their worst period, are not taking their problems as seriously as they should, a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement officer fears, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Calvert, a socially responsible mutual fund provider, and The United Nations Development Fund for Women, entered into an unusual alliance to produce an ethical set of guidelines aimed at helping corporations improve conditions for women.

The NASD announced Thursday that it has fined five brokerage firms $625,000 for failure to have the supervisory systems in place to detect and prevent late trading. The five are D.A. Davidson & Co., TD Waterhouse Investor Services, Stifel Nicolaus & Co., National Planning Corp. and SII Investments, Inc. Each of these firms processed trades after the 4 p.m. close of the market, the NASD said.

Representatives from the largest members of the $7.4 trillion mutual fund industry gathered this week at the Morningstar conference in Chicago to devise new strategies aimed at putting widespread scandals in the past, Reuters reports.

Vanguard Group's flagship low-cost index mutual funds are quickly soaking up assets from institutional investors through a newly opened newly opened distribution arm in Singapore, Reuters reports.

Myles W. Farrington promised over 100 investors in South Florida a 20% return by investing in mutual funds, but instead ended up making the state’s Department of Financial Services top 10 fraud list.

A Wisconsin appeals court has revived a previously dismissed case against Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. The company had been charged with breach of contract and breach of its legal duty to its policyholders because it changed the way surplus profits were credited to annuities.

As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted Wednesday to require funds to have independent chairmen and for 75% of a fund’s board to be independent, up from 50%. The new rule will require major changes at fund companies, where approximately 80% of the chairmen are currently affiliated with the investment advisor.

Just a day after cheering the $90 million settlement with New York and federal regulators by Pilgrim Baxter for abusive mutual fund trading, the South African insurer Old Mutual told Reuters it wants to further punish the company to the tune of going after founders Gary Pilgrim and Harold Baxter for additional compensation.

Just a day after cheering the $90 million settlement with New York and federal regulators by Pilgrim Baxter for abusive mutual fund trading, the South African insurer Old Mutual told Reuters it wants to further punish the company to the tune of going after founders Gary Pilgrim and Harold Baxter for additional compensation.

Retirement assets invested in mutual funds continued their ascent last year, as a strong rally in stocks and heavy net cash flow fueled a 28% pop in 2003, according to research released Tuesday by the Investment Company Institute.

Mutual fund companies may lose the first round in fighting the new independent chairman rule Wednesday, when the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to vote on the new measure requiring directors who are unaffiliated with management to take the helm of mutual fund boards. If so, investment powerhouses like Fidelity Investments and The Vanguard Group will have lost a major battle with the SEC, CBSMarketWatch.com reports.

Investor advocates who initially thought the mutual scandals would lead to a downward trend of mutual fund fees are now saying expenses paid by shareholders will remain steady this year and possibly rise in 2005, TheStreet.com reports.

Canadian mutual fund investors are largely unfazed by the widespread mutual fund scandals in the U.S. and similar types of abuses in their own back yards, Winnipeg Free Press reports.

One week before the Federal Reserve Board’s expected interest rate hike, an economic advisor from Putnam Investments warned that using the history lesson given by previous "tightening cycles" as a guideline might not be a smart move. Investors may not suffer as badly as they expect.