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The troubles at Big Five accounting firm Arthur Andersen of Chicago over its auditing of the financial statements of Enron Corp. may be raising issues for the mutual fund industry.

Arthur Andersen's recent troubles in the wake of Enron's financial meltdown and its uncertain future have begun wafting over to the fund industry.

This is not the first time the fund industry has faced challenges with independent auditors.

Morningstar's plan to rate managed accounts much the way it ranks mutual funds has drawn concern from an industry lobby group.

With the recent issuance of Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Treasury Department guidance on capitalization, a drawn out conflict with the fund industry over the tax treatment of fund start-up costs appears to be drawing to a close. The Investment Company Institute has not issued an official comment on the issue, but it has indicated that the new rules do not go far enough in terms of the costs that can be expensed.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, American Funds has a lot to be proud of. An innovative 529 plan it launched with the State of Virginia last Friday has caused at least two other investment managers to revamp their own college savings plans, according to industry executives.

OppenheimerFunds' acquisition of Houston asset manager Gulf Investment Management last week is part of a three-year strategy to build its services for high-net-worth clients, a company official said in an interview. The move comes during a time when wealthy investors are increasingly demanding more advice and a greater customization to their products

The financial implosion of Enron late last year has brought increased scrutiny to the regulations that govern 401(k) plans. Now, some say the longstanding issue of portfolio disclosure might be next.

The financial collapse of Enron, and reports that the firm's workers lost millions in their retirement plans when the company declared bankruptcy, has spawned a spate of recent legislative measures designed to protect 401(k) investors. But many of the initiatives are facing criticism from industry officials who say that lawmakers should be cautious in reacting to the Enron debacle.

As lawmakers debate possible reforms to 401(k) rules in the wake of Enron's financial collapse, Ted Benna, who launched the first 401(k) more than two decades ago, has suggested that workers be barred from spending their own money on stock in their companies.

As Franklin Templeton's director of defined contribution services, Dan Reinhold never thought he would find himself working at, of all things, an automobile industry conference.

Retirement plan providers are closely eyeing the new employer-only 401(k) plans as a vehicle that could capture greater rollover assets, open new markets and provide inroads to the high-net-worth crowd.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's comment period on actively managed exchange-traded funds ended last week, but the new type of ETFs that will likely soon be approved by the Commission are those based on fixed-income indices.

Looking ahead to 2002 there are several issues both with mutual fund regulation and proposed legislation that will likely reach some conclusion this year. Late last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission sent out a letter seeking comment on the development of actively managed exchange-traded funds. Those comments are due in January 2002, and Alan Rosenblat, an attorney with Philadelphia-based law firm Dechert, expects that the SEC will release guidelines about that over the course of this year.

This past year was particularly active in terms of mutual fund regulation, according to industry lawyers. A number of initiatives from the Securities and Exchange Commission that had been discussed in recent years, including independent fund director and after-tax reporting issues, came to fruition in 2001.

Open to the back pages of the "Money and Investing" section of the Wall Street Journal and you'll find a series of indexes, including those from the paper's parent company, Dow Jones. Then flip to fund listings provided by Lipper and you'll find a list of funds delineated by category: small-cap, large-cap, value, core, growth.

At the height of the bull market, employee benefits packages were used to recruit new talent, but with massive layoffs occurring across the economy, those packages, including 401(k) benefits, are being trimmed.

NASD Regulation continues to monitor sales of variable annuities and fine dealers who violate suitability rules and record-keeping requirements. Two firms were named in the most recent enforcement action and more actions are possible, industry experts say.

Bank of Montreal's acquisition last week of the North American operations of online broker CSFBdirect is part of an effort to ramp up the Canadian bank's U.S. mutual fund sales, the company said last week.

Merrill Lynch Canada's decision to sell its $2.8 billion in Canadian mutual fund assets to competitor Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce may have been based on research that shows the wealth market in Canada is shrinking.