Not surprisingly, 2009 has so far killed more mutual funds compared to the same period last year. Data from Morningstar show that 40 mutual funds had at least one share class liquidated this year through March 9. This compares to 34 in the same period in 2008.

For the whole of 2008, 617 share classes from 314 distinct funds were liquidated, according to Morningstar. The tally did not include funds that were merged.

This year, firms including Ziegler Capital Management and E*Trade have announced their exit from the mutual fund management business. In Ziegler's case, it inked a deal last month to move eight of its mutual funds to HighMark Capital Management and plans to liquidate two other funds (see The MFWire, 02/17/09). As for E*Trade, the online broker last month revealed plans to liquidate four index funds and one actively managed fund (see The MFWire, 02/25/09). 

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