Mutual funds

Assets in exchange-traded funds have nearly tripled in the past five years, from $302 billion at the end of 2005 to $819 billion at the beginning of this month. Year-to-date 2010 through August, investors have pulled $29 billion from traditional US equity mutual funds, while ETFs have seen $40.8 billion in inflows. Since risk aversion is rampant at present, what is driving this tremendous and curious interest in ETFs? Can this momentum continue to catapult ETFs to a second big wave of growth?

Quarterly fee payments save the day, as new product sales suffer from a market dip.

The Hartford Mutual Funds will permanently reduce fees on six of its fixed income funds, effective Nov. 1. The biggest reduction is in the gross expenses on share Class A on The Hartford High Yield Fund, which are being reduced by 15 basis points to 1.25%. The other funds are seeing reductions in fees of between two basis points and 10 basis points.

ETFdb.com, an information source and database of exchange traded funds, has launched a free conversion tool that allows investors and advisors to map current mutual-fund holdings to their equivalent ETFs, which typically have cheaper expense ratios and are easier to trade.

The E*Trade fund supermarket now includes 18 funds from USAA Management, 12 of them fixed income. USAA manages $43 billion in mutual funds and $6 billion in managed accounts.

Money managers buck August’s pessimism to enjoy a rosy September.

The Basel III bank capital requirements proposed earlier this month threaten to eviscerate the supply of eligible investments for tax-free money market funds — an industry already struggling with a severe supply shortage.

The exit of capital from mutual funds in the United States has slowed down, but showed signs of picking up steam again this month.

Brown Brothers expanded its relationship with OppenheimerFunds to provide middle and back office services through a new “lift-out” agreement for a $155 billion division.

Brown Brothers Harriman Trust, based in New York City, launched the BBH Core Select mutual fund in 1998 as a small trailer fund to help younger members of its wealthy families manage smaller sums.

Morningstar may remove leveraged and inverse exchange-traded funds from its star rating system and track them separately, Scott Burns, the firm’s ETF director, told attendees at Morningstar’s ETF conference last week.

A fund devoted to investing in Build America Bonds would have a tough time avoiding debt backed by the states of California and Illinois altogether. Eaton Vance is doing its best.

The exit of capital from mutual funds in the United States has slowed down, but showed signs of picking up steam again this month.

The company calls the two sectors “important fixed income areas.”

PIMCO Tuesday announced two new exchange-traded funds, the PIMCO Build America Bond Strategy Fund and the PIMCO Investment Grade Corporate Bond Index Fund.

Observers note the move comes amid intensifying competition among equity funds.

The sell-off in municipal bonds finally appeared to sap some retail demand for state and local government debt last week as muni mutual funds reported taking in the paltriest amount of new money in six weeks.Municipal bond mutual funds that report their figures weekly posted a net inflow of $638.2 million during the week ended Sept. 15, according to Lipper FMI, the lightest inflow since early August.

David Corkins, a star manager at Janus who sucessfully ran the Janus Mercury and Janus Growth & Income funds and executed an impressive turnaround on the flagship $12 billion Janus Fund, started hedge fund Arrowpoint Partners in 2009 - delivering returns of 33%.

Life used to be so simple.

She was hired by GAMCO in December 2005 with 20 years experience in mutual fund treasury operations with various fund companies. In May 2009, she was promoted to senior vice president.