Mutual funds

The Vanguard Group may add an exchange-traded share class to its Small Cap Index Fund and its Total Stock Market Fund, according to Brian Mattes, a company spokesperson.

Until now, if a foreign fund company had a successful fund and wanted to give it exposure to the potentially lucrative U.S. marketplace, it has had to start from scratch and register a similar fund in the U.S. That may no longer be true. Julius Baer Group of Zurich may have found a way around that onerous process.

A mutual fund devoted to investing in casket manufacturers and funeral parlors is six feet under. So are two funds devoted to the golf industry. Other specialized funds, such as one that invested in sports interests, have also died out.

Morgan Stanley Dean Witter of New York will issue a new social index fund called the Morgan Stanley KLD Index Fund, according to a preliminary prospectus filed April 17 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Assets of exchange-traded funds have declined during the current market downturn, along with those of many mutual funds. That is no surprise. However, unlike stock mutual funds, which experienced net outflows in February, exchange-traded funds are being used more than ever, as average daily trading volume continues to rise.

Principal Preservation Portfolios of Milwaukee, a fund family with $1.2 billion in assets under management, has announced that it has changed its name to the North Track Funds.

State Farm Insurance of Bloomington, Ill. has announced that it is offering mutual funds nationally. The company started offering mutual funds in January, in a pilot program in Missouri, North Carolina, Kansas and Virginia.

When a roomful of mutual fund company executives at a recent industry conference was asked for a show of hands of those who had looked into running managed accounts as a means of growth for their respective companies, no one moved.

Munder Capital Management, adviser to the Munder Funds, has announced the opening of the Munder Power Plus Fund, one of the first mutual funds focused on investing in technology for new sources of power.

Forum Funds of Portland, Maine has filed a preliminary prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the Shaker Fund, which would invest primarily in small and medium-sized companies and would be the newest fund in Forum's family of 19 funds. The family includes equity and municipal bond funds.

At least one U.S. exchange has begun negotiations with the Financial Times Stock Exchange of London for the licensing rights to list exchange-traded funds that will track a new series of socially-responsible indices offered by FTSE, said Will Oulton, president of FTSE North America in New York.

American Century of Kansas City, Mo. has become the latest in a series of no-load fund companies to add C-shares, or level loads, to some of its funds.

Turner Investment Partners of Berwyn, Pa. will add three value funds and one bond fund to the firm's growth and fixed-income mutual funds, according to the company.

In a departure from its growth orientation, Janus Capital of Denver plans to offer its first value fund on May 1, according to a preliminary prospectus filed Feb. 14 with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Online portfolio products, derided by the Investment Company Institute of Washington D.C. as unregulated mutual funds, got a strong endorsement last week when it was revealed that Fidelity Investments of Boston and Charles Schwab of San Francisco would begin offering the products to investors.

Driven by investors' desire for asset-based fees and advice from investment professionals, assets in mutual fund wrap programs increased 21.3 percent in 2000 over 1999, according to Cerulli Associates of Boston.

Over the past year there has been a lot of talk about exchange-traded funds. Industry conferences have been held on the subject, the media has written widely about them and analysts have researched them. But, are they really worth all of the attention? Do they really pose a threat to mutual funds? After all, total exchange-traded fund assets are equivalent to less than one percent of total U.S. mutual fund assets.

NEW YORK - Offering account aggregation can be a good method of marketing a mutual fund family, however there are pitfalls that can undermine the benefits of the arrangement. That was the message conveyed by industry executives at a conference here earlier this month on mutual fund systems and technology sponsored by Marcus Evans of Chicago.

AIM Management Group of Houston has filed to register a new closed-end mutual fund that will cater to wealthy investors seeking alternative types of investments.

The American Stock Exchange has announced that it will begin trading the Cohen & Steers Realty Majors Index Fund, a new exchange-traded fund offered through Barclays Global Investors of San Francisco.