Mutual funds

Imagine this: A dissatisfied technology worker at a mutual fund complex computer network hacks into the company website, disabling it for hours or even an entire day. Investors who rely on the Internet to make transactions and get information about their accounts will be frustrated and furious, overloading the customer service phone lines. Money and loyalty will be lost; investors will take their invested assets elsewhere.

American Century Investments is adding a new fund, Twentieth Century Global Growth, to its group of international funds as of Dec.1. The fund will seek long-term capital by investing in both foreign and domestic companies, primarily in developed markets. Its benchmark will be the Morgan Stanley Capital International World Free Index.

The Internet brokerage E*Trade has launched its own mutual fund family and in the process has created what may be the first mutual fund to offer so-called electronic shares.

Federated Investors last week became the latest fund adviser to introduce a stable value fund, a move which comes as investors increasingly are looking for the stability of money market fund- style investments.

Fifth Third/The Ohio Company has created a Strategic Communications & Technology Unit Investment Trust. The trust will buy a fixed portfolio of stocks in 44 software, Internet, telecommunications, hardware, networking, equipment and semi-conductor companies like America Online, AT&T, Dell Computers and Motorola. Investors can buy units of the trust for an initial offering price of $10 per unit, at a minimum initial investment of $1,000.

Global Investment Systems announced the newest version of its mutual fund accounting systems software, MFACT for Windows, MFACT 4.0.

UMB Financial Corporation announced that it has changed the name of its proprietary family of mutual funds, the Scout Funds, to the UMB Scout Funds. The name change will have no effect on investment strategy.

Merrill Corporation, a provider of paper and electronic document and information management services, is introducing what it is calling, "Electronic Distribution Services." The new services will allow clients to convert marketing and compliance documents to a variety of electronic formats, including HTML and PDF files that can be posted online, or stored in a diskette or CD-ROM.

While John Glenn is making news for NASA as the oldest man to travel into space, a new fund adviser in Los Angeles is hoping that a NASA scientist will make news for its new small-cap quant fund.

In an effort to build its online business, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter is creating a line of proprietary index funds to be sold exclusively through its online brokerage, Discover Brokerage Direct.

John Nuveen & Co. has added 10 new equity defined portfolios to its selection of unit investment trusts.

Invesco Funds Group has added two new funds, the Invesco Endeavor Fund and the Invesco International Blue Chip Fund.

Arthur Andersen and insurance broker Frank Crystal & Co. are offering a joint program to reduce risks and costs for fund industry participants.

The National Securities Clearing Corporation is set to begin testing Phase 2 of its Mutual Fund Profile System next month.

College alumni may soon be plumbed as yet another new distribution channel for mutual funds.

A publishing company that specializes in offering advice on how to invest in direct investment plans is getting into the fund business.

Wells Fargo and MassMutual Retirement Services are teaming up to create a new pension service with online capabilities. The new pension program will include administration, actuarial, trustee and investment management services. It will also offer Internet-based communication and administration services. For example, participants will be able to calculate their projected retirement benefits online. The new service will be available to defined benefit plans with a minimum of $2 million in assets at the beginning of 1999.

Morningstar is introducing investment information and analysis aimed at the retail Japanese mutual fund industry. The new products are being introduced by Morningstar Japan K.K., a collaboration between Morningstar and Softbank Corp., an information and software company based in Tokyo. On October 26, Morningstar Chief Executive Officer Don Phillips will be in Tokyo along with Yoshitaka Kitao, president and chief executive officer of Morningstar Japan, who is also CEO of Softbank, to talk about the new products. Using Morningstar's U.S. operations as a model, Morningstar Japan plans to publish investment research and analysis for Japanese investors and financial professionals. Softbank also has a major stake in the U.S. Internet businesses, Yahoo! Inc. and GeoCities.

Confluence Technologies has released the latest version of its flagship mutual fund software, FundStation Version 4.30. The new version will be able to translate performance data into euros, when that currency is adopted. It also allows companies to easily transfer their data to CTCI 2.0, NASDAQ's new message format for daily and year-end reporting of mutual fund information.

Major fund companies are not likely to embrace Cuba as the antidote to the outflow of assets from their equity funds, but one Miami-based company hopes to be the first into a market it believes is destined to take off.