Mutual funds

Frederick R. Kobrick is hoping that a name change for his one-year-old growth oriented fund group will eliminate a potential drag on its success.

Mutual fund companies, which already offer check writing and money market funds that act a lot like savings accounts, are about to compete even more directly with banks to capture assets.

The first no-load golf mutual fund teed off on January 4.

Capital Management Sciences (CMS) of Los Angeles, a division of Data Broadcasting Corporation, has added a new cash management capability to its BondEdge portfolio analytics software package.

Strong Retirement Plan Services of Milwaukee has announced that participants in the firm's 401(k) plans will now have Internet access to their accounts through a new tool called Strong NetConnect.

The BT Quantitative Equity Fund may be a fund marketer's dream - a new equity product that has an interesting story, no peers and a great track record.

Oak Associates of Akron, Ohio has started the Red Oak Technology Select Fund, a non-diversified portfolio of common stocks of primarily technology companies. Red Oak joins White Oak Growth Stock Fund and Pin Oak Aggressive Stock Fund in Oak Associates' family of mutual funds.

Stein Roe & Farnham expects to be the first to offer a floating-rate bank loan fund in the no-load channel. The Stein Roe Floating Rate Income Fund is currently in a pre-subscription period which ends December 18. It will be offered to the general public soon after that.

TransNations Investments of New York is developing a new fund based on a proprietary Israeli equity index. The Amidex-35 Index Fund will invest in approximately three dozen Israeli companies that are traded on the Tel Aviv or U.S. stock exchanges. The no-load fund is currently in SEC registration and expected to be offered in February.

When Jim Atkinson, a director in charge of U.S. operations at Guinness Flight Investment Management, read the June issue of Wired magazine, he was impressed with an article about the Wired Index. The stock index, compiled by the magazine to chart the global economy of the information age, was promoted as the successor to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Two mutual fund companies with national distribution have opened up a new front in the increasingly heated competition to sell investment funds with insurance benefits.

The Vanguard Group has filed a registration statement with the SEC for a new fund called the Vanguard Tax-Managed Small-Cap Fund.

The Growth Fund of Spain, one of 15 closed-end funds managed by Scudder Kemper Investments, was to convert to an open-end fund last week. Shareholders had previously approved a proposal to convert the fund and to reorganize it as a new fund in the Kemper Global/International Series.

Fidelity Investments Public Service Sector Services Company announced that it has introduced SLAMNet, the first electronic asset management, Internet-based product designed specifically for public sector clients. SLAMNet gets its name from Fidelity's acronym for its State and Local Asset Management program. Through a secured website, the company offers access to stock quotes and information from major news services and trade publications. It also gives users the ability to trade Fidelity's institutional money market funds online.

Alleghany Funds of Chicago recently opened the Alleghany/Chicago Trust Small Cap Value Fund. The fund will invest in companies with positive or improving cash flows and which show other signs of financial strength. The fund will be managed by Patricia Falkowski. Previously,

Strong Funds of Milwaukee has introduced Prime Managers, a mutual fund investment service that makes available no-load funds from nine leading investment managers on a no-transaction fee basis.

Janus and Legg Mason are among the latest of a growing list of companies that run sector funds- those that invest in a particular market sector.

A publicly-traded Christian Internet company is getting into the mutual fund business.

Mellon Bank Corporation of Pittsburgh and its mutual fund company, the Dreyfus Corporation, announced the start of a new family of offshore funds based in Dublin, Ireland. The fund family, Dreyfus Global Funds, plc, will be composed of four funds: The Cash Plus Fund, U.S. Treasury Fund, Deutsche Mark Fund and Sterling Fund. The funds are not available to U.S. or Irish citizens.

E*Trade announced the launch of Power Search, its newest research tool for mutual fund investors, which was developed by Personalogic, a San Diego-based software design firm. Using Power Search, E*Trade's mutual fund investors will be able to compare funds they have selected with as many as 20 other funds.