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The SEC may require mutual fund companies and broker/dealers to tell investors more about the special payments fund companies make to broker/dealers for selling funds.

BOSTON - The SEC may ease its original stand on the amount of personal information mutual fund directors must disclose in SEC filings about the business relationships of members of their extended families, according to a high-ranking SEC official.

BOSTON - A U.S. District Court judge has expressed skepticism about a shareholder's claim that Fidelity Investments of Boston had biased its mutual funds' independent directors and charged funds excessive fees.

Capitalizing on recent market volatility, Putnam Investments of Boston started offering insurance on all of its funds Feb. 1, becoming the first independent fund company to offer this type of product.

The Maryland Court of Appeals should uphold the constitutionality of a state law on mutual fund directors, according to mutual fund firms and fund and securities industry trade groups.

Pilgrim Baxter & Associates of Wayne, Pa. will begin offering separate accounts in an effort to attract high-net-worth investors, according to Tom Florence, a senior vice president and director of the firm.

The money management arm of Waddell & Reed Financial of Overland Park, Kan. is planning to offer a tax-managed fund.

Broker/dealers could face pressure to provide investors with an unprecedented amount of detail about the special sales payments they receive from mutual funds and mutual fund companies as the result of a class action lawsuit that is moving slowly through the federal courts.

Charles Schwab's Mutual Fund OneSource hit a milestone late last month when the assets of its mutual fund marketplace reached the $100 billion mark. Approximately $30 billion of new money was invested during 1999, translating into a 47 percent increase in assets for the year.

Neuberger Berman of New York registered with the SEC last week to add a new technology growth fund that will be launched in May, according to Jennifer Silver, the company's managing director. The new fund will be managed by a team of portfolio managers led by Silver, according to Neuberger.

The number of employees switching asset allocations in their 401(k) programs increased in the month of January, according to an index released by Hewitt Associates of Chicago that measures the daily activity of 401(k) assets of 1.5 million employees.

Merrill Lynch Asset Management of Princeton, N.J. is reshuffling its international funds lineup to merge out of existence three comparatively small funds.

The SEC has suffered a pair of setbacks in its attempts to discourage intermediaries from recommending that their clients sell funds after holding them for only a short time and then use the proceeds to buy new, hot-performing funds.

The mutual fund industry is rallying to support a Maryland law that says mutual fund directors do not lose their independence because they get paid for serving on several fund boards in the same mutual fund complex.

The SEC last week won a key case in its efforts to discourage registered representatives from selling class B shares of mutual funds when cheaper A shares are available.

The Investment Company Institute has announced its support for an SEC proposal that would allow joint liability insurance coverage to be purchased on behalf of a fund adviser, its officers and its fund directors.

John Hancock Funds of Boston, has teamed up with Standard & Poor's of New York to provide retirement services to more than 1,000 companies nationwide.

Federated Investors of Pittsburgh, Pa. has purchased InvestLink Technologies from United Asset Management Corp. of Boston. InvestLink of New York is a software developer and marketer of systems for the record-keeping, administration and servicing of defined contribution plans. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The mutual fund world can expect to hear and read a lot more in the next few weeks about the independence of mutual fund directors, thanks to several events.

Pure-play, or sector funds, are beginning to show up along with the usual investment options of 401(k) plans: large-, small- and mid-cap, growth and value investments, according to industry executives.