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In calculating fund expense ratios, funds may only reduce total expenses by contractual fee waivers or reimbursements, the SEC is reminding fund advisers in its annual, "Dear CFO" letter.

The SEC has made it easier for funds to redeem the holdings of affiliates and large shareholders in securities rather than cash, a move industry accountants and lawyers say should reduce fund costs and ease operational headaches.

A growing number of fund companies are establishing alliances with third party 401(k) advisory firms in an effort to meet increasing demands for 401(k) advice.

The Prudential Insurance Company of America of Newark, N.J. announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a majority interest in Hochman & Baker of Northbrook, Ill., a firm that trains accountants to offer investment products to its clients.

The Vanguard Group of Malvern, Pa. is planning to file a registration statement with the SEC for a no-load mutual fund that will track a new socially-responsible index, the company has announced.

The competition for index fund assets will be heating up in the next few months.

Warning: A large diet of initial public offerings may be hazardous to your investment health.

The SEC is prepared to look back before Dec. 8 to sue mutual fund companies if the agency finds apparent violations of the pricing policies outlined in a letter the agency issued last month.

Hartford Life Insurance Company of Simsbury, Conn., is looking to the person who helped launch its proprietary mutual fund family to increase sales of the firm's funds and annuities to 401(k) plans.

The SEC is considering a rule change that could save mutual funds millions of dollars each year by creating a new, abbreviated mutual fund document that would take the place of lengthy fund prospectuses under some circumstances.

Investa Management of New York is planning to introduce two new no-load funds. One of them is an index fund that will attempt to beat the returns of the S&P 500 by using a proprietary options strategy, according to an SEC filing.

Deep Discount Advisors of Asheville, N.C. has submitted to the SEC an opposing proxy statement to replace the directors of the Global Small Cap Fund of New York, despite what appears to be an attempt by the fund to ignore the proxy, according to SEC filings.

Merrill Lynch of New York will introduce a gift tax-free family of funds designed for college saving investors, the company announced last week.

A new mutual fund plans to use Internet message boards to obtain information from shareholders on the companies in which it invests, according to an SEC filing.

Mutual fund advisory firms have a troubling conflict of interest that may cause them to pull their punches in some proxy votes, according to SEC Commissioner Paul R. Carey.

Some mutual fund companies may be about to take an "If you can't beat em, join em" approach to exchange-traded funds.

The two-and-a-half-year-old struggle between Navellier Investment Management of Reno, Nev. and two former independent fund directors is once again heating up with lawsuits being filed by both sides. Navellier has filed a new lawsuit against one former fund trustee who has reciprocated with his own lawsuit. A second former trustee is contemplating filing a similar lawsuit.

A recently enacted Maryland law that makes it more difficult to challenge the independence of fund directors in court is under attack.

Deutsche Bank of Frankfurt, Germany announced last week it will combine the no-load funds from its subsidiaries, Morgan Grenfell of New York and Bankers Trust of New York, to create a new no-load fund family under the Deutsche name.

The SEC may be overdoing it in its preparations for the computer-programming transition to the year 2000, according to some mutual fund operations executives.