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The process of valuing the securities in a mutual fund's portfolio - often an imprecise task - may require more work from now on for some fund companies and fund directors.

Fund companies are courting new investors, especially high net-worth investors, with charitable gift funds according to mutual fund consultants and charitable fund managers.

Deep Discount Advisors of Asheville, N.C. has sent a protest letter to the SEC charging that the Global Small Cap Fund of New York is trying to prevent Deep Discount from introducing a proxy vote to elect a new slate of directors for the fund.

J. & W. Seligman & Co. of New York is planning a new series of four mutual funds that will make use of proprietary asset allocation strategies the firm has developed, according to an SEC filing.

Merrill Lynch Asset Management of New York is planning to offer new mutual funds that will be run by two well-known money managers who joined the firm recently, Robert Doll and Jim McCall, according to two SEC filings.

Jundt Associates of Minneapolis, Minn., the adviser to four growth oriented load-funds, plans to begin offering a no-load family of funds next year. The American Eagle Funds will include two growth funds. One of these may use leverage to increase its returns, according to a registration statement filed with the SEC Nov. 19. The new funds include the Capital Appreciation Fund, which may sell short and use other techniques to increase its leverage in investing in growth stocks, and the Twenty Fund. The Twenty Fund will invest in approximately 20 stocks, primarily of U.S. growth companies.

The SEC is expected to issue guidance soon on how mutual funds should value their securities, an issue of critical importance to the fund industry that the SEC has not systematically addressed in more than 25 years.

A couple of new mutual fund companies have done what could be a risky maneuver - launching a website that mentions a fund before the fund has been approved by the SEC.

Prudential Insurance Company of Newark, N.J. has purchased a majority stake in the third-largest independent fund management company in Mexico. Prudential last week acquired a 51 percent interest in Apolo Operadora de Sociedades de Inversion of Mexico City. The new company will be named Prudential Apolo Operadora de Sociedades de Inversion. Both companies declined to disclose how much Prudential paid for Apolo Operadora.

The SEC has finalized amendments to a rule which governs the appointment of an interim investment adviser to a mutual fund. The rule clarifies the procedure to be followed when there is a merger of a fund's investment adviser. The revised rule 15a-4, originally adopted in 1980, permits a fund to be advised under a short-term contract until shareholders can vote on a new contract.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of New York is planning to offer a mutual fund that will invest in companies that are expected to do well in the economic environment of the new millennium, according to an SEC filing.

Online brokerage Donaldson, Lufkin, & Jenrette of New York has begun offering the first two no-load, equity funds in a new fund family. The Strategic Growth Fund and the Choice Technology Fund will be offered through DLJdirect. The adviser for the funds will be DLJ Investment Management Corp. of New York.

StockJungle.com of Culver City, Calif. has added its own contribution to a new concept in the industry, a concept StockJungle.com calls, "naked mutual funds."

Mutual fund shareholders next year could begin seeing the expenses associated with running their funds decrease by millions of dollars as the result of recent moves by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Two top executives at Sunpoint Securities, a broker/dealer of Longview, Texas, allegedly diverted up to $25 million from as many as 9,000 clients during a nearly two-year period, the SEC alleged in a lawsuit filed Nov. 19.

The SEC, alleging a portfolio manager stole approximately $5.8. million from the funds he managed, has sued the manager who has already spent seven months in jail on related charges.

Janus of Denver, Colo., the growth-oriented mutual fund company, is planning to offer its first value fund since 1988.

Fidelity Investments of Boston is likely to be adding a new member to its funds' boards of directors early next year.

The Pioneer Group of Boston plans to open a junk bond fund that will incorporate assets from another high-yield bond fund, according to an SEC filing.

Salomon Smith Barney of New York has filed a registration statement with the SEC to ask shareholders of its closed-end Greenwich Street Municipal Fund and shareholders of its open-end Smith Barney Managed Municipals Fund to merge the former fund into the latter. If approved, the proxy vote will take place Feb. 11.