At the Bell

SEC may tell funds to stick with styles

The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to propose by the end of the year that mutual funds must invest at least 80% of their assets in accordance with the style indicated by their name.

Paul Roye, director of the SEC’s division of investment management, said as much last week at a mutual fund symposium sponsored by Fund Democracy LLC, a Bethesda, Md., for-profit public interest group that represents fund shareholders.

“If your name implies that you invest in a certain type of securities, we’re looking at an 80% threshold of having your portfolio reflective” of that type of security, Mr. Roye told the group.

Don Phillips, chief executive of Morningstar Inc., suggested that the SEC allow for flexibility in some cases, such as for mid-cap stock funds, because different managers legitimately interpret what constitutes a mid-cap stock in different ways.

Timing of SEC rule draws group’s ire

The National Investor Relations Institute has issued an icy statement in response to securities regulators’ decision to deny its request to delay the effective date of Regulation FD.

“We are extremely disappointed in the gross insensitivity to the reality of today’s volatile market,” Louis M. Thompson, the group’s president and CEO, said in the statement.

NIRI, based in Vienna, Va., had lobbied the SEC to extend the effective date of the regulation from next Monday to Dec. 29, citing fears of interfering with companies’ earnings announcement cycles. Regulation FD, for “fair disclosure,” forces companies to report major news to all investors at the same time they report it to institutional investors or analysts.

Investment chief resigns at Conseco

Conseco Capital Management Inc. of Carmel, Ind., announced Friday that Thomas J. Pence, senior vice president and chief investment officer, unexpectedly resigned.

Mr. Pence’s duties, which included co-managing the $181.2 million Conseco Equity Fund and overseeing the equity department, will be assumed by Erik Voss and Paul Berg.

Mr. Voss is a senior securities analyst and manages the $103 million Conseco 20 Fund, along with institutional equity investments. Mr. Berg is also a senior securities analyst and co-manager of the $45.2 million Conseco Science & Technology Fund.

Acorn opened to intermediaries

Liberty Financial Cos. Inc. of Boston is announcing today the availability of the Acorn Funds to the intermediary market. Liberty, which finalized its purchase of Wanger Asset Management of Chicago on Oct. 2, is shutting down the no-load side of the business for new shareholders.

The funds switching to A, B, C and Z shares are Liberty Acorn Fund, Liberty Acorn International, Liberty Acorn USA, Liberty Acorn Foreign Forty and Liberty Acorn Twenty.

No-load shares will be available to investors who owned shares before the sale date of Wanger Asset Management. This marks the first time in 30 years that the investment strategy of Ralph Wanger and his team has been available through intermediaries.

Correction

Due to a production error, a story in last week’s issue was accompanied by an incorrect photo. David Feldman, a CFP at Wechter Financial Services in Parsippany, N.J., appears in the photo here.

Clarification

Due to an editing error, there may have been some confusion over the name of one of the magazines in a story last week about publications that intend to participate in the creation of new exchange-traded funds. The magazine is Individual Investor, which was incorrectly identified on first reference.