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The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is issuing a consumer alert to federal and state lawmakers that the National Conference of Insurance Legislators (NCOIL) has a strong industry bent.

Fund sponsors seek the highest returns for the investor, yet also desire to turn the highest possible profit for themselves, a Reuters columnist attests. The expense ratio of the average mutual fund recently stood at 1.36%, nearly 50% higher than in the late 1970s, Reuters quotes John Bogle, Vanguard founder, as saying.

Morningstar Associates, the registered investment advisor subsidiary of Morningstar, Tuesday announced that EPIC Advisors, a provider of custom 401(k) plans, will provide Morningstar’s ClearFuture online retirement guidance and advice to plan sponsors.

The mutual fund industry has boasted that even in 2002, with the S&P 500 down more than 22%, it took in a net $75 billion. But $64 billion, or 85% of that money, came from passive, automatic 401(k) contributions – not investors actively seeking out funds in nonretirement accounts, The Wall Street Journal reports. In fact, stock funds in nonretirement accounts lost a net $54 billion last year, according to the Journal. And the trend is continuing this year.

Wealth managers providing separately managed accounts and private client services are going to vie most actively for the assets of the very wealthy in the coming years, a PricewaterhouseCoopers survey shows. Seventy-one percent of wealth managers expect to increase their number of ultra-high-net-worth clients with $50 million or more to invest, but only 14% plan to increase the number of affluent clients with $100,000 to invest.

Bonds are on the downswing in Japan as stocks surge, Bloomberg reports. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average is at its highest point in nearly a year, reinforcing speculation that the world’s second-largest economy may be on its way to recovery.

U.S. equity funds reported net cash inflows of $2.5 billion for the week ending July 1, according to information provided to Reuters by AMG Data Services.

Independent financial advisers managed to increase their clients’ assets an average of 11% last year, according to a survey of 370 firms by Bloomberg Wealth Manager magazine.

A problem presented to mutual fund firms is how to prevent investors from redeeming shares when a star manager leaves a fund, Reuters reports. This has happened on more than a few occasions lately, with large companies like Janus and Liberty Wanger Asset Management losing some of their highest-rated stockpickers.

GoldK has received $7 million in additional venture capital backing from Lazard Technology Partners and TH Lee Putnam Ventures. Both firms have invested before the current Series C round.

Integrated Fund Services announced Monday that Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group has selected it to provide financial administration, fund accounting and transfer agency services for its affiliate FBR mutual fund group. The transition is expected to take place by the end of the summer.

Invesco is paring back its management team as four of its portfolio managers were issued their walking papers, Reuters reports.

Foreign exchange funds that have based themselves around the strength of the Euro might be running into trouble, according to Reuters. The currency, strong in recent months, has been performing in a lukewarm fashion as of late.

Finances and health insurance are on the minds of baby boomers, as 36% of them say they think about their retirement savings nearly every day, according to a recent survey by Pulte Homes Inc.

As if money market funds hadn’t been beaten up enough already this year, the week ending July 1 brought more pain to the sector. The week brought record lows for taxable money market fund yields and saw investors withdraw more than $15 billion from the funds, according to the Money Fund Report, Reuters reports.

ABN AMRO Funds said is launching the ABN AMRO High Yield Bond Fund, a new fund aimed at providing investors with interest income and capital appreciation.

Investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings acknowledged in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is in talks to merge with Neuberger Berman, according to wire service reports.

Putnam Investments and two of its veteran stock pickers are parting ways amid a company shakeup, Reuters reports. The firm also announced several additions to the management teams of their Vista and Voyager funds. Putnam said that after a review of its growth teams and investment processes, a change was in order.

Exchange Traded Funds had a spring in their step in June, gathering assets worldwide and trading more frequently in the month, according to a recent Morgan Stanley report.

Waddell & Reed Financial has launched an expanded Ivy Funds family following the completion of mergers of several Ivy Funds into similar W&R funds, a move approved by shareholders.