Vanguard does the right thing
From The Washington Post
Vanguard is feeling socially conscious. It's teaming up with Bethesda-based Calvert Group to offer a "socially responsible" index fund, which they hope to launch next spring. The fund will consist of about 600 of the 1000 largest companies, who are then screened to avoid companies involved with products such as alcohol, tobacco and weapons, and those that have poor records on workplace safety, the environment and human rights. The involvement of Vanguard, a mainstream stalwart, is seen as legitimizing socially conscious investing.

International fund booms
From The Boston Globe
The New England International Equity fund has scored a dramatic turnaround. At the end of 1998, it ranked near the bottom for returns over one-, three-, and five-year periods. Now three new managers have taken charge, and the fund is rocketing skywards. The trio,from San Diego-based Nicholas Applegate, is Eswar Menon, who handles emerging markets; Alex Muromcew, the Asia expert; and John Tribolet, manager for the European side of the portfolio. They work out of the San Francisco office of Loomis Sayles, the fund's investment adviser.

Merrill goes undercover
From Investment News
Merrill Lynch will start marketing mutual funds through an outside sales force under the names of two subsidiaries, Hotchkis & Wiley and Mercury Asset Management. Those funds have been performing better than the Merrill's, which competing brokers would be reluctant to sell. Merrill is also considering cloning and rebranding some of its best performing funds under the Mercury or Hotchkis & Wiley names. Merrill is the second of the five top brokerages to try selling funds outside its own sales force, and analysts say it's likely that the others will soon follow. Merrill is planning to enter into sales agreements with three broker/dealers or banks, and to start selling the funds next year. Although Merrill has been hiring portfolio managers to improve its own funds' performance, its funds still hover near the mean for their investment categories. Investors have withdrawn more than $9 billion this year.

Hilary conquers new territory
From Morningstar
Marsico Funds launched a new offering today. The fund will have a three-pronged strategy of stable-growth companies, supplemented with aggressive-growth firms and companies undergoing positive change. That strategy is typical of veteran stock-picker Tom Marsico, but James Hilary, one of Marsico's top analysts, will manage the new fund. Hilary may be getting his own fund as a reward for past success.  

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