MutualFundWire.com: Odd Lots, October 11, 1999

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Monday, October 11, 1999

Odd Lots, October 11, 1999

After-tax publishing
From The Wall Street Journal
The Vanguard Group is expected to publish after-tax reports for 47 of its stock and balanced funds, maintaining that without taking the impact of federal income taxes into account, a fund's actual return can be sharply distorted. Vanguard's move is the first of any fund company to disclose after-tax returns on a broad range of mutual funds. Some fund companies currently report some after-tax returns, but most of the disclosures are confined to a handful of specially tax-managed funds and don't apply to regular portfolios.

Variable annuity with a twist
From The Wall Street Journal
Nationwide Financial Services Inc. plans to introduce a variable annuity with long-term care insurance as a feature. The announcement is the latest sign that increased competition is forcing annuity sellers to become more innovative. The annuity, InvestCare, will be test marketed in Ohio starting this month and Nationwide expects to roll it out nationally, most likely in March.

Fidelity advertises Powerstreet
From The Boston Globe
Comic magicians Penn & Teller will be starring in the first television ad to link the recent launch of Powerstreet -- Fidelity Investments' on-line trading brand -- to the parent company. The message: "Because no two investors are alike, a one-size-fits-all Web site isn't of much use to those who want to trade on line." Powerstreet.com allows investors to create their own personalized Web pages that fit their individual investment styles and goals. The goal of the ad is to use two people whose styles are very different. The next ad is likely to pair up Bob Villa with moon-walking astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Powerstreet ads will be backed up in print and radio ads. They are the first from Gotham, the New York ad agency Fidelity hired earlier this year.

Funds in the Press

This Sunday, The New York Times had a special section on mutual funds. Included in the quarterly report were articles about closet indexing, the lackluster year for index mutual funds, stock-pickers from three top-performing funds speak about what made their funds such standouts, how the Street is emulating the Strip by giving customers access to specialized products as a way to attract new business and more.

Paul Blaustein, who runs IBJ Core Equity Fund is highlighted in Investor's Business Daily. He offers some of his one-liner nuggets of good investment principles, including, "The only constant is change -- benefit from it."

The Boston Globe highlights, Peter Austin Vlachos, manager of the Austin Global Equity fund. Vlachos's fund, which invests all over the world has moved a sizable chunk of its assets out of the United States and into Europe and Japan in recent months in response to concerns about inflation.