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Pioneer High-Yield Fund manager Margaret Patel, whose fund has returned 20% so far this year, told Reuters that in spite of the recent sell-off in high-yield bonds, now is the perfect opportunity to buy them. High-yield junk bonds suffered $1.1 billion in net outflows last week, their biggest decline since last September, according to AMG Data Services. Two factors – a glut of junk bond paper hitting the market and investors selling out of Treasuries – put additional downward pressure on junk bonds recently. But Patel believes this increase in inventory should only result in lower prices.

The National Association for Securities Dealers’ board of governors has proposed a rule that would require its member representatives to disclose whether they receive greater compensation for selling certain funds, and for its broker/dealer members to disclose money they receive for promoting funds.

Hedge funds are increasingly using exchange traded funds, particularly to short the market or various sectors, Reuters reports.

CheckFree Corp. has announced fourth quarter pro forma net income of $20 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2003, a 56% increase from $12.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2002. On a GAAP basis, CheckFree’s fourth quarter net loss was $17 million, compared to $59.4 million for the year earlier. The pro forma results exclude $45 million of amortization for acquisitions, a $10.2 million intangible asset impairment charge and $1.4 million from a previous reorganization charge.

Most parents and grandparents still don’t know about 529 plans, according to a poll commissioned by AllianceBernstein Investment Research and Management. The Harris Interactive poll showed that 64% of parents and 65% of grandparents were completely unaware of this type of college savings plan.

Standard & Poor’s calculates that the forward 12-month dividend rate for the S&P 500 is $13.9 billion higher than it was at the end of 2002. Factoring in the dividend tax cut, this will bring investors $46.7 billion more in profits each year, according to S&P.

Amvescap’s independent trustees are seeking permission to ask shareholders to approve the merging of the boards of its subsidiary companies, AIM and Invesco. The trustees, in a registration statement filed with the SEC on Friday, say this will be the second step in Amvescap’s plan to merge all of its North American fund operations, the first step being AIM becoming the distributor for all of the funds.

Vanguard has filed a registration statement to offer five age-based funds for people in their 20s to their 70s, retiring between 2005 and 2045, in addition to one retirement income fund. Announcement of the new "Target" series comes just days after Fidelity announced it has launched Advisor share classes on its own five "Freedom" funds.

Guardian Investors Services, a subsidiary of Guardian Life Insurance Co., has launched a new bond fund that answers the fears of investors who have taken widely publicized cautions about bond rate volatility to heart. The Guardian Low Duration Bond Fund reduces the risk of interest rate volatility because it focuses on shorter-duration instruments.

Although the average number of fund choices in a 401(k) plan is 15, many employers offer dozens and dozens of selections. But a number of leading companies are now beginning to trim those offerings back, which should be very beneficial to investors, as it helps boost participation, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Life insurer Lincoln National will cut up to 1,000 jobs on top of the 200 it has already eliminated, Reuters reports. The layoffs come after the firm’s earnings fell 84% to $91.6 million in 2002, down from $590.2 million in 2001.

Fueled by strong inflows into equity funds during the month of June, mutual funds took in a net $47.2 billion, according to Merrill Lynch. Equity funds attracted $18.7 billion, bond funds $5.4 billion and money market funds $23.2 billion.

Fidelity Investments has spun off its Geode Investors division – which uses statistical strategies, including hedging, to invest money for its top executives – into a separate company, Reuters reports. Fidelity divested itself of the unit amid increasing regulator concern that mutual fund companies that also employ hedging tactics raise conflict-of-interest issues if one of their mutual fund managers is betting on a stock while a hedge fund manager is shorting it.

With assets finally picking up at money management firms, a wave of mergers and acquisitions, or selective buy-outs, is about to take place, Business Week reports. Following Lehman Brothers’ announcement last month that it will purchase Neuberger Berman and Charles Schwab’s acquisition of State Street’s private client business, Citigroup is now in the market and Janus might be a likely target.

Charles Schwab has launched a mutual fund and a managed account platform that will invest in dividend-paying stocks. The Schwab Dividend Equity Fund and the Schwab Personal Portfolios Dividend Equity platform will both invest in dividend-paying stocks that have been rated either an A or B by Schwab Equity Ratings. They are designed to take advantage of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 that reduces the maximum tax on dividends to 15%.

Stock funds had net inflows of $600 million in the week ended Wednesday, a sharp drop from the $4.1 billion stock funds took in during the previous week, according to TrimTabs.com, Dow Jones reports. Domestic stock funds took in $1.2 billion, but international stock funds lost $600 million. The previous week, both domestic and international stock funds had net inflows, of $3.2 billion and $800 million, respectively.

A handful of mutual funds closed to new investors are still charging 12b-1 fees, Standard & Poor’s found. One hundred and thirty nine funds with a total of 232 share classes are charging an average 62 basis point 12b-1 fee. Equity funds charge the highest fee, 65 basis points. Money market funds charge an average 52 basis points in their 12b-1 fees, and fixed-income funds charge an average 48 basis points, S&P said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Nevis Capital Management, its president, David R. Wilmerding III, and executive vice president, John C. Baker, with inequitably allocating shares of initial public offerings to only two of the firm’s 105 clients. The firm only allocated IPOs to the Nevis Fund and Snowden Limited Partnership, although it falsely stated in SEC filings that it would treat all of its clients equally, the SEC said.

Two investors in the $4.8 billion Morgan Stanley American Opportunities Fund have filed a lawsuit against the fund’s advisor, Morgan Stanley Investment Advisers, and its distributor, Morgan Stanley Distributors, charging them with receiving soft-dollar compensation, the Associated Press reports. Chana and David Yampolsky do not specify the amount of soft-dollar compensation Morgan Stanley received in their suit, which they filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. But they charge Morgan Stanley with breaching its fiduciary duty by receiving what they call unreasonably high compensation. The fund took in $27.8 million in fees in 2002.

GlobalBridge, a Minneapolis managed account provider, has hired a former U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray executive as president in an effort to expand distribution through community banks and small community trust companies. Ross Rogers, the former president of U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray's private advisory services business, is now president and principal of the firm.