Mutual funds

Vestek, an investment research company of San Francisco, is trying to convince mutual funds that they can build their distribution with innovative research to give their brokers.

The National Securities Clearing Corp. is in the initial stages of creating an offshoot that will service independent financial advisors. The new arm plans to computerize mutual fund processing for these independent planners who still do fund processing by mail. The venture is so new, however, a name has not yet been decided upon. The NSCC board of directors approved the creation of the new group in December.

Princeton Financial Systems of Princeton, N.J., has created a new service called PAMConnect that gives customers remote access to Princeton's PAM system. PAM is a Windows-based portfolio accounting and management system used by 300 mutual funds and other institutional investors. Through PAMConnect, clients can now connect to Princeton's data center through dial-up connections using frame relay, leased lines or the Internet. Before, Princeton Financial clients would have to install PAM software at their own site. PAMConnect permits clients to out-source their data center maintenance to Princeton Financial without clients being aware of it, said Gordon Gacek, a spokesperson for the firm.

Merrill Lynch of New York plans to offer a new growth fund run by a former Delaware Investments portfolio manager. George H. Burwell will run the Merrill Lynch Disciplined Growth Fund, according to a registration statement Merrill Lynch filed with the SEC April 20.

On June 1, Vanguard will reopen its Windsor Fund, which currently has $16.97 billion of assets under management and seeks long-term growth of capital and income. The fund was initially launched in 1958 and has been closed since 1990 when Vanguard decided the fund's assets had grown to an unmanageable level, according to a Vanguard spokesperson. Wellington Management Company of Boston will continue as lead adviser.

The Dessauer Global Equity Fund, which attracted considerable attention when it was introduced as a closed-end fund because of its commitment to open under certain conditions, has been re-introduced as an open-end fund.

Gabelli Asset Management of Rye, N.Y., is planning to launch a new fund, the Gabelli Blue Chip Value Fund, by early fall. The fund will seek long-term capital appreciation from value equity investments. Barbara Marcin, who has just joined Gabelli, will manage the fund. Marcin was previously head of value investments at Citibank Global Asset Management.

Putnam Investments of Boston has introduced a new fund for retail mutual fund investors called the Putnam Small-Cap Value Fund. The fund invests in small, undervalued companies that have the potential for stock appreciation of 10 percent to 15 percent a year. The fund is being jointly managed by Edward Shadek, chief investment officer for small-cap value equities, and Jeffrey Netols, senior vice president.

Unified Financial Services of Indianapolis in late April launched six index funds and an actively-managed Internet fund. All of the funds have expense ratios of only 0.35 percent.

Ivy Management, a mutual fund investment adviser in Boca Raton, Fla., introduced the Ivy European Opportunities Fund on April 30. Henderson Investors of London will sub-advise this fund. Stephen Peak, head of Continental European equities at Henderson, will serve as portfolio manager on the fund, which is growth oriented.

Datalink.net of San Jose, Calif., has introduced end-of-day alerts on mutual fund values for 9,600 mutual funds. Datalink.net posts these values at the exact time Nasdaq issues its close-of-market reports, said Anthony LaPine, the company's chairman and CEO.

Mutual fund companies have a new avenue for disseminating their educational materials to investors.

Linklaters & Alliance, an international law firm based in Brussels, is offering a new Internet database, called Blue Flag Funds, which gives mutual fund companies information on starting investment products in other countries.

In response to the ample returns and risks associated with today's market, the Institute for Investment Management Consultants of Washington, D.C, has created software to help its members - investment managers to institutions and individuals - show their customers the risks inherent in their investment strategy.

Standard & Poor's of New York has created a new mutual fund division by merging three units. The units, Standard & Poor's Micropal, Standard & Poor's Fund Research and Standard & Poor's Managed Funds Ratings, will now be known as Standard & Poor's Fund Services. Sanford Bragg will become managing director of the new unit. The move is aimed at accelerating the company's global expansion, Bragg said.

Berger Associates is expanding a joint partnership begun last year to add a retail technology fund to the Berger Funds lineup.

AIM Advisors of Houston plans to launch a fund that will invest in companies it expects will benefit from demographic, economic and lifestyle trends. The fund, to be called the AIM Dent Demographic Trends Fund and to be introduced in June, will be an all-cap growth fund modeled after the teachings of strategic consultant Harry S. Dent, Jr. Through his company, H.S. Dent Advisors, Dent will serve as sub-adviser to the fund.

Charles Schwab Investment Management of San Francisco last week introduced the Schwab Total Stock Market Index Fund. The fund is designed to track the performance of the U.S. stock market, as measured by the Wilshire 5000 Index. The index contains nearly every U.S. publicly-traded stock.

Capital Research & Management of Los Angeles last week introduced the New World Fund, a fund that will focus on emerging markets. Capital Research & Management is known as a conservative company and has opened only five new funds since 1990.

NewRiver Investor Communications of Watertown, Mass., has developed Prospectus Express, patent-pending software that would allow mutual fund companies to post prospectuses and other lengthy fund documents in a format that would allow investors to immediately view and retrieve those documents. Other prospectus software allows users to print out documents but not view them online. Prospectus Express also enables users to search within documents for keywords. Currently, that is not possible through the SEC's Edgar database.