Mutual funds

American Data Services of Hauppauge, N.Y., a shareholder services company, announced that it has started the Imperial Bank Fund, which will invest in the stocks of banking institutions and other financial services firms. The fund will be managed by David Allaire and Michael Laliberte of the Retirement Planning Company of Providence, R.I. The fund will be 65 percent invested in bank stocks and 35 percent in other financial firms like brokerages, lending institutions and insurance companies. It will carry a 4.75 percent front-end load and a 12b-1 fee of 0.5 percent. Minimum initial investment is $2,000, $500 for IRAs.

E*Trade has finally received SEC approval for its first mutual fund and has now started its own asset management business.

A Connecticut registered investment advisor is offering a product that sounds like an investor's dream come true - insurance for a mutual fund portfolio that guarantees that a living investor will not lose his initial investment.

It was ten months in the making, but Mario Gabelli's long-awaited initial public offering of his Rye-based firm, Gabelli Asset Management, Inc. was finally held on Feb. 11.

Prudential Investments has introduced the Prudential Tax-Managed Equity Fund which is designed to reduce the effect of capital gains distributions on the return of equity mutual fund investments.

Stein Roe Mutual Funds of Chicago has introduced the Stein Roe Small Company Growth Fund. The no-load fund will seek long-term capital appreciation through investment in stocks of small, growing companies.

The Fidelity and Deposit Companies (F&D) of Baltimore announced its new E-Risk Protection Program, a new risk management service designed to help financial service firms reduce risk related to online business activities.

The Moneypaper, a newsletter based in Mamaroneck, NY, has started a new no-load mutual fund which is based on the newsletter's 63-stock index of companies that have low or no-cost dividend reinvestment plans. The company announced plans to start the fund in the fall.

The Central European Value Fund announced that it has added Estonia to the list of countries in which the fund can invest. In addition to Estonia, the fund is currently authorized to invest in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia. The fund invests at least 65 percent of its assets in central Europe, It may also invest up to 35 percent in eastern European countries. The fund is listed on the New York and Osaka stock exchanges.

Wilshire Associates announced that the first Wilshire 5000 Index Fund will be launched Feb. 1. The fund will seek to replicate the index while keeping transaction costs low.

In an effort to offer actively-managed performance at a cost and risk more associated with an index fund, J.P. Morgan has introduced a hybrid fund, the SmartIndex Fund.

Bonus units on deferred load funds, launched this month by discount brokerages, have opened up a new front in price competition. Since the introduction of the first deferred load funds in Canada in 1987, all types of intermediaries -- whether full service advisors or discounters -- have collected exactly the same amount of commission paid directly to them by the fund companies.

Alpine Management & Research of New York has started the Alpine Realty Income and Growth Fund, its third focused real estate mutual fund.

When the Value Trends Funds began selling its new mutual fund the first week of January, fund officials claimed it was the first no-load mutual fund to invest in the golf industry.

A new mutual fund plans to combine two previously independent investing strategies- momentum investing and sector funds.

Fidelity Investments has started the Growth & Income II Portfolio, a new retail fund with similar investment policies to those of Fidelity Growth & Income, which was closed to new investors on April 3, 1998.

Federated Investors has opened the Federated Global Equity Income Fund (FGEIF), one of three of the firm's global funds. It seeks capital appreciation and income by investing in stocks of dividend-producing companies in the U.S. and abroad.

The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) of Washington, D.C. has introduced a continuously updated REIT index. Steven A. Wechsler, president and ceo of NAREIT, said the new index allows investors to better gauge industry performance and compare returns of individual REITs against the industry as a whole. NAREIT's index is the only REIT index to include all 211 REITs currently trading on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and the AMEX, Wechsler says.

Warburg Pincus Funds announced that it is launching a new no-load mutual fund called Warburg Pincus European Equity Fund, which will be managed by Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM).

A coalition of Midwestern Catholic organizations called the Catholic Fraternal Alliance is creating a new family of mutual funds that will be offered through a powerful distribution network.