Mutual funds

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.

The Presbyterian Church is creating a family of mutual funds in which its affiliated colleges, schools and congregations can invest the money they raise.

New England Financial (NEF) is creating a new computer-based personal money management tool to be known as the Electronic Money Management Account. All money placed in the account will be invested in a money market fund offered through New England Securities Corp., an affiliate.

The Hartford Mutual Funds is introducing C shares into its family of 10 mutual funds. The new C shares will pay brokers a two percent sales commission and a one percent annual trail beginning in the second year to be paid quarterly. Clients pay a one percent up-front sales load on new investments and an annual one percent 12b-1 fee on total assets. A one percent contingent deferred sales charge is assessed on redemptions within 12 months of new share purchases.

Select Advisors, Inc. has added a new product to its asset management services called Market Value Portfolio. MVP, a wrap account or group of funds sold as a package to advisers, brings together a portfolio of commission-free, passively-managed funds like index and market funds. "Since MVP performance is not dependent on an adviser's or manager's ability to time the markets or pick stocks, it's the perfect service for a particularly volatile stock market," said Jack Waymire, president and chief executive officer of SAI.

The Enterprise Group of Funds has opened its first sector fund, the Enterprise Global Financial Services Fund. The subadviser will be Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. The fund is Enterprise's 14th and will invest in financial services in the U.S. and abroad, including developed markets represented in the Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe, Australia, Far East Index. No emerging markets investments will be made. The minimum initial investment is $1,000.

Even as an increasing number of Asian and emerging market funds announce plans to liquidate, merge or change their mandates because of poor returns, INVESCO is starting a new international fund, the International Blue Chip fund.

John Hancock Funds is changing the names of two of its funds. The John Hancock Sovereign Bond Fund is changing its name to the John Hancock Bond Fund, and the John Hancock Global Rx Fund is changing its name to the John Hancock Global Health Sciences Fund. The changes were approved by the board of trustees of each fund. The investment objectives of both funds will remain unchanged.

Bank of Montreal is counting on Canada's weakened currency for the success of the three latest additions to its First Canadian family of funds. Launched on Oct. 2, the U.S.-dollar-denominated funds are designed for investors who are looking to hedge their currency bets through diversification. The funds include a money market, a bond and an equity index fund. The bond fund will invest in U.S.-government debt and the index will track the S&P 500 total return index.

Fidelity customers will be able to check stock and mutual fund quotes by phone using Fidelity Investment's speech recognition system. By October, customers will be able to call Fidelity's automated line, say the name of the stock, mutual fund, index or option over the phone and receive an updated quote.

American Skandia has added three new funds to the American Skandia Advisor Funds family. The new funds are: the ASAF Marsico Capital Growth Fund, which is managed by Tom Marsico.; the ASAF Neuberger&Berman Midcap Growth Fund, managed by Jennifer Silver, former manager of the Putnam Ultra Fund; and the ASAF Neuberger&Berman MidCap Value Fund, which is co-managed by Michael Kassen and Bob Gendelman.