Nixing Internet filing
From TheStreet.com
Stein Roe Mutual Funds, has decided to nix the idea of starting its Internet mutual fund. A spokesperson for the fund would not say why the filing was pulled even with investors flocking to Internet funds in droves last spring. They even sank $1.3 billion into I-funds in April as Internet stocks reached never-seen-before highs. But the flow of new investment has fallen each month since then, even as the number of Internet funds has multiplied.

Taking your customers with you
From The Boston Herald
Fidelity was once considered the king of marketing and wooed customers away from traditional commissioned brokers. Now, however, Fidelity's tactics might have rubbed off on its own employees. Last summer, Fidelity sued a former employee because he was trying to capture the fund giant's clients. Upon leaving Fido and joining Merrill Lynch, Paul D. Murray Jr., a Fidelity broker, called and wrote to several customers he had helped while at Fidelity and persuaded one investor to move his $1 million account to Merrill. The claim never went to trial but the matter raises questions about what limits a company can put on employees who leave.

Bogle criticizes lack of fund governance
From The Wall Street Journal
Jack Bogle, founder of the Vanguard Group, calling funds "the controlling force in corporate America," because mutual fund managers own 35% of all corporate stocks, is calling for increased involvement in corporate government. He says funds have been lax in not pulling their weight on issues like excessive stock options, option repricing and using accounting "tricks" to boost earnings. Bogle says the ICI should lead the way in promoting corporate governance as an issue, possibly through a roundtable or forum. The ICI has recently elected Vanguard's chairman, John Brennan to a second term.

• Also in the Journal, Schwab's online trading system was down again on Wednesday for two and a half hours, one of the longest such outages Schwab has experienced.
  
  

Sun Life to go public
From The Boston Globe
Canadian insurance giant Sun Life plans to offer more than one million policyholders around the world shares in a new company to be called Sun Life Financial Services of Canada Inc. The move should have a positive impact on Boston-based subsidiary MFS Investment Management, giving the company more capital to finance expansion plans. The restructuring of the insurer from a policyholder to a shareholder base is becoming more common, with John Hancock, Prudential, and MetLife all recently undergoing the same transition or announced plans to restructure.

 

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