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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The SEC is planning to issue additional guidance to the fund industry sometime before April on securities valuations, said Douglas Scheidt, chief counsel for the SEC's division of investment management.

A significant number of investors in retirement are planning to increase their contributions to their 401(k) plans and become more aggressive in their allocations in 2001, according to a recent survey by Fidelity Investments of Boston.

Coming on the heels of the SEC's issuance earlier this month of mutual fund trustee independence rules, the occasion of the new president's inauguration has raised a new question about trustee independence.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The SEC is planning to issue additional guidance to the fund industry sometime before April on securities valuations, said Douglas Scheidt, chief counsel for the SEC's division of investment management.

Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford, Conn. has announced it will acquire a 75 percent stake in Walnut Asset Management, a private asset management firm, and its sister company, Rutherford, Brown & Catherwood, a registered broker-dealer, in a cash transaction of an undisclosed amount.

New York Life Investment Management of Parsippany, N.J. has announced the launch of the Eclipse Funds, a fund family made up of 18 no-load funds to be distributed through fee-based financial planners and wrap programs.

Mutual funds should be required to report their fees in dollar figures in their semi-annual reports to shareholders, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission study on fund fees issued last week.

Although the SEC's recently-adopted directors rules do not break new ground, they do codify existing standards and will likely encourage independent directors to seek independent legal representation, according to industry lawyers.

Management partnerships between broker/dealers and fund managers are part of a trend that is spawning new funds that are being sold through competing broker/dealers, according to industry analysts and executives.

NEW YORK - The SEC this year will finalize its proposed rules that funds invest, under normal market conditions, at least 80 percent of their assets in a manner consistent with the name of the fund, said Paul Roye, director of the SEC's division of investment management.

Old Mutual of London has announced the formation of Old Mutual Asset Managers (US), an aligned group of six asset management firms which were affiliates of United Asset Management when it was acquired by Old Mutual in September.

Nuveen Investments of Chicago plans to introduce the first exchange-traded funds to track U.S. Treasury indexes, according to the company. The five new funds, called Fixed Income Trust Receipts, will be based on indexes of one, two, five and 10-year treasury issues and 20-year STRIPs - separately-traded registered interest and principal securities, Nuveen said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is making minor changes to the new Form ADV rules it adopted in September requiring investment advisers to file the form electronically, the SEC announced late last month.

State Farm Insurance of Bloomington, Ill. has announced that it has begun offering 10 State Farm mutual funds in North Carolina, Virginia, Missouri and Kansas. State Farm Insurance plans to offer the mutual funds to customers throughout the United States by March, according to the company.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted new independent directors rules that will require that a fund board's membership be made up of a majority of independent directors instead of the current 40 percent requirement.

When Arthur Levitt announced that he was stepping down as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, Washington lawyers predictably began speculating on his replacement almost immediately. It might be some time, however, before President-elect George Bush makes the appointment.

Phoenix Engemann Funds of Pasadena, Calif. has filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to merge the Phoenix-Engemann Small Cap Fund, a series of Phoenix Strategic Equity Series Funds of Greenfield, Mass., with the Phoenix-Engemann Small & Mid-Cap Growth Fund, a series of the Phoenix-Engemann Funds.

The trustees of the four Cappiello-Rushmore Funds, saying that they could not find a suitable buyer for their floundering funds, have asked shareholders to approve liquidating all the funds in the $28 million Cappiello-Rushmore Trust complex.

Prudential Funds of Newark, N.J. has filed a proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to merge its Prudential Government Securities Trust into the Prudential Government Income Fund.

Aetna Funds, a division of Aeltus Investment Management of Hartford, Conn. will add a sixth fund to its Principal Protection Funds series of guaranteed mutual funds in April 2001, according to Aetna.