Subject Root Tag

PALM DESERT, Calif. The SEC will scrutinize the business relationships of mutual fund accountants as part of a larger effort intended to strengthen the independence of fund directors.

ProFund Advisors has created two new no-load funds: the UltraEurope ProFund and the UltraShort Europe ProFund. The two funds seek performance relative to the ProFund Europe Index (PEI), which is based on indexes of the markets in Britain, France and Germany. The UltraEurope fund seeks to double the results of the PEI, while the UltraShort Europe seeks to double the inverse of the PEI.

PALM DESERT, Calif. The SEC is considering proposing that mutual funds be required to disclose more than they currently do about the effect of taxes on investment performance.

NEW YORK The value of mergers and acquisitions among investment management companies, including mutual funds, has increased nearly seven-fold in the past eight years and it is expected to continue to grow at a robust pace.

The SEC is proposing to shut down transfer agents for mutual funds which have not solved serious year 2000 computer problems by Oct. 15.

Mutual fund companies could be required to disclose the impact of taxes on portfolio returns, if a bill that has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives passes. Congressmen Paul Gillmore (R-Ohio) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) introduced a bill, the Mutual Fund Tax Awareness Act of 1999, on March 11.

Bank One Investment Advisors Corp. of Columbus, Ohio, has merged its One Group Family of Mutual Funds with the Pegasus Funds, which belonged to First Chicago NBD Corp. Bank One and First Chicago merged in October 1998. The merged fund family now has 48 funds with $56.2 billion in assets under management. Merging the two funds took a good deal of work since Pegasus had 30 funds and One Group had 34 funds, said Bank One chairman and ceo David Kundert. However, no funds were completely eliminated, Kundert said. "Funds with similar objectives were merged," the chairman said. "We chose the best of the best and have ended up with a stronger overall family that carries with it a very strong series of Morningstar ratings and broad styles to satisfy every investor's need."

SEI Investment Co. of Oaks Park, Pa. has joined with the International Finance Corp. and Tong Yang Securities of Seoul, Korea, to form an asset management group called SEI Asset Korea.

Ranson & Associates of Wichita, Kan. has made a second offering for its Value Line No. 1 Strategy Trust, a Unit Investment Trust (UIT) first offered in January. It has since raised $27.5 million.

The Institute of Certified Financial Planners (ICFP) of Denver and the International Association for Financial Planning (IAFP) of Atlanta have agreed to merge. They have tentatively decided to call the new entity the Financial Planning Association. Combined, the new association could have a very large membership ICFP currently has 14,500 members and IAFP has 17,000.

Merrill Corp. of St. Paul, Minn. has acquired Daniels Printing of Boston. The deal makes Daniels, an 118-year-old company which had been family-owned, part of a public company. The new company will be called Merrill/Daniels. Merrill hopes that the acquisition will shore up its New England operations. Daniels, with over $68 million in revenue in 1998, is the fourth largest financial printer in the U.S. and has 375 employees. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt is expected to recommend changes in the way mutual funds are governed at an industry conference on mutual fund regulation which begins today.

With widespread consolidation in the mutual fund industry, many industry observers have predicted the demise of mid- to-small-sized fund companies.

The mutual fund family of Mennonite Mutual Aid (MMA) of Goshen, Indiana, has become a success story for small funds that invest in socially-conscious ways.

Opposites attract and when they do, adjustments need to be made as will no doubt be the case with the mutual fund families of BankBoston and Fleet Bank.

MassMutual Retirement Services of Springfield, Mass., has revamped its web site with a sophisticated calculator for its defined contribution and defined benefit customers. The calculator automatically lifts information on client accounts out of various MassMutual records into an analytical engine capable of processing various scenarios for a shareholder's retirement. Also, the calculator stores whatever new information the customer supplies to it. The calculator can even automatically re-balance a shareholder's portfolio.

The investment adviser to the Internet Fund - a portfolio that returned better than 300 percent for the 12-month period ending Jan. 31 - is considering opening a new fund.

Phoenix Investment Partners of Hartford has completed its acquisition of the mutual fund business of Zweig Fund Group of New York for $135 million plus up to $29 million over the next three years, depending on revenue growth. With this acquisition, Phoenix has renamed the Zweig and Euclid open-end mutual funds the Phoenix-Zweig Funds and Phoenix-Euclid Funds. Phoenix currently has $57.5 billion of assets under management.

Deutsche Fund Management has introduced the DB Americas Bond Fund, a fund that will concentrate on fixed-income securities in the Americas and the Caribbean. The fund will be offered to non-US residents. Deutsche Fund Management will sell the fund through its own and other private banking groups around the world.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) is offering a new fund which will invest primarily in companies whose employees are members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM). The SSgA IAM Shares Fund will invest approximately 66 percent of its assets in IAM-represented companies. The IAM represents 734,000 working and retired members.