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Proxying fund shareholders is often seen as a necessary evil in order to make significant changes to a fund, or, in some cases, liquidate it.

With shareholder activism and corporate governance such a hot topic lately, MFMN set out to discover what's driving shareholder proxies these days, and what kind of response rates they're getting.

When former President Bill Clinton signed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act in April 2000, there was wide speculation that e-signatures would transform not just financial services but e-commerce as well.

Is Gary Winnick, chairman of beleaguered telecom Global Crossing, trying to save his own hide by making a public pledge of $25 million to those among his employees who lost large sums of their 401(k)s plan during the recent telecom bust? Or, is he, as he recently told Congress, trying to set a precedent in corporate moral responsibility?

As Wall Street's woes continue, mutual fund executives have come to think of their industry as a drawing on an Etch-A-Sketch. When it gets messed up, they can shake it up and draw it over again.

Diplomat. Detective. Politician. Strategist. Entertainer. Financier. Referee.

July

An industry as competitive and highly regulated as the mutual fund industry could not possibly slip one by investors, right?

The bear market, a steep decline in mutual fund and variable annuity sales and the strain of product guarantees, will result in widespread downgrades at life insurance and annuity companies, all of the major ratings agencies have announced,

Many fund companies are at a crossroads, according to Charles O'Neill, president, Diversified Management Resources. In order to keep costs down, many complexes that built out during the boom years of the 1990s are going to have to drop part of their business and concentrate more on specific areas, O'Neill said. "Fund companies are going to have to decide essentially whether they are product distributors or product manufacturers. That's what it comes down to," O'Neill said.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - There's no question that the Securities and Exchange Commission has left the mutual fund industry a little confused lately.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Ensuring that fund companies are complying with provisions of new anti-corporate fraud legislation will be at the top of the Securities and Exchange Commission's agenda for regulating fund companies in 2003, an SEC official said late last month.

The Massachusetts Securities Division has charged a Denver broker/dealer with scaring elderly people into abandoning their securities in favor of annuities with outrageous commissions.

PALM DESERT, Calif. - Outdated and risky in this age of accounting scandals plaguing Wall Street. That is how a fund consultant and author described the fund industry's model for reviewing corporate reporting. To stave off future legislation, a new model is needed, the speaker told the 700 fund accountants gathered here last week at the Investment Company Institute's Tax & Accounting Conference.

The backlash against corporate secrecy spilled over into the usually clean mutual fund industry as the Securities and Exchange Commission took a first step last week in requiring mutual funds to disclose their proxy voting policies and votes.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to require publicly traded companies to reveal their so-called critical accounting policies is a step in the right direction, according to leading fund companies.

Joseph Carrier, vice president and treasurer of the T. Rowe Price Funds, weighed in on a number of subjects concerning the industry during a recent interview with Mutual Fund Market News Associate Editor Chris Frankie. Carrier, chairman of the Investment Company Institute's Accounting/Treasurers Committee, also spoke about some of the topics to be discussed at the ICI 2002 Tax & Accounting Conference in Palm Desert, Calif., this week.

Changes to Illinois tax law may make the state's 529 college savings plan more attractive to Illinois residents, but they could also inspire other states to try to get residents to favor their in-state 529 plans. If that happens, fund companies that have established a 529 footprint in one state may have to scramble to form alliances with multiple states to get them into their plan.

Craig Callahan thinks he has something that investors want: a little peace of mind.

The mutual fund industry is balking at a proposed new Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would require top executives to personally sign off on each of their funds' annual and semi-annual reports.