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Investors feeling upbeat due to recent gains in previously battered sectors should keep their portfolios diversified and their investment strategies clear, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The American Stock Exchange Monday began trading options on the underlying shares of Barclay’s iShares Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday issued a report indicating that increased transparency in the $6.4 trillion mutual fund industry is necessary, but hinted that large scale changes are not likely due to their impracticality.

Trouble at Freddie Mac is likely to have serious implications for the mutual fund industry, CNBC.com reports. Institutions, primarily mutual funds, own 88% of the government-sponsored mortgage-finance giant.

Part of buy-side giant Amvescap’s strategy in merging the mutual fund operations of its AIM and Invesco subsidiaries is to boost its foray into the separately managed account (SMA) business for high-net worth individuals, said Mark McMeans, president and COO of AIM Private Asset Management.

Scudder Investments has introduced two new variable annuities underwritten by Travelers Life and Annuity Co. and The Travelers Insurance Co. The Scudder Advocate Rewards annuity offers a 4.5% bonus on purchases, while the Scudder Advocate Advisor is a C-share annuity with no surrender charges.

National Association of Securities Dealers is investigating annuity exchanges at Waddell & Reed.

H Team Capital, LLC, a newly organized investment management firm based in Delaware, has filed for registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a corporate governance mutual fund.

Wells Fargo Funds Management has completed its acquisition of 11 funds with $1.4 billion in assets under management from Montgomery Asset Management. Montgomery, a subsidiary of Commerzbank, and Wells Fargo announced the transition last November. Gartmore Global Investments, meanwhile, is acquiring two of Montgomery’s international funds and one long/short equity fund.

Chicago-based Morningstar has long been well positioned to service 401(k) and other defined contribution plan providers with investment advice. Now, it is reaching into the large plan sponsor arena with its purchase of privately held mPower, a San Francisco company that provides online advice to participants of defined contribution plans.

A number of separate-account investment platforms have recently broadened their offerings, which, at the end of the first quarter of 2003, collectively sported $729 billion in assets under management, according to Cerulli Associates of Boston.

Separately managed accounts have enjoyed tremendous growth in recent years as high-net-worth individuals have been lured by their direct ownership and tax management features. Nowhere in the asset management industry has that growth been more evident than at Jersey City, N.J.-headquartered Lord Abbett, a well-established partnership with $49 billion in assets.

The Cleveland Foundation, the nation's second-largest charitable foundation with $1.5 billion under management, didn't waste any time joining the three-month-old Merrill Lynch Community Charitable Fund.

Trying to create a new niche in the 529 market and garner some of the assets of the hundreds of thousands of charitable organizations around the world, Seligman Advisors has come out with a 529 college savings scholarship account.

SEI Investments has rolled out Product Analysis, a mutual fund diagnostic tool that can help fund companies and their sales partners find new ways to market their funds by using statistical information and benchmarking tools from numerous data sources. This should prove particularly helpful to mutual fund wholesalers, who have had to build more of a relationship and offer in-depth consulting to their clients, according to SEI.

John Hancock Funds has recently launched its eighth closed-end fund and its 12th closed-end fund in total.

Kelmoore Investment Co., which manages $400 million in mutual funds and separate accounts, has moved its performance reporting to the APL service from CheckFree Investment Services, a division of CheckFree Corp. Kelmoore's aim is to better serve separately managed account sponsors, as 39 of the top 50 sponsor firms and 36 of the top SMA managers use APL.

Bisys Group has entered the separately managed account business by creating a new separately managed account division that will cater exclusively to SMA managers and distributors. It will provide an array of services including account administration, portfolio accounting and administration, settlement services and billing.

PFPC, a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. has hired Albert J. Marazza as vice president, sales of PFPC's fund start-up services.

Banc of America Capital Management, the investment management arm of Bank of America, recently named Anthony R. Carmenate to the newly created position of director of marketing, focusing on investment solutions provided to financial advisers and their clients.