The 40Act states that the interests of shareholders are compromised when mutual funds are operated in the interest of fund advisers. In this regard, one of the Act's major objectives is to ensure investors receive adequate and accurate information. They do not. For this reason, Congress, the...

The revelations of major scandals in the mutual funds industry brought intense feelings of betrayal and financial loss to millions of fund shareholders whose assets were improperly and illegally appropriated. Shareholders need and deserve much greater protection and transparency of normative...

The literature has been unable to provide a definitive model of the sources and nature of mutual fund scale economies and diseconomies. This study provides findings on the nature and sources of fund economies and diseconomies with respect to expenses, size, performance, trading, and numerous...

Movie Time: One way to describe the impending threat of is to use the 1930s MGM color movie, Adventures of Robin Hood, as a metaphor. Here goes. The good guys (mutual funds) outside the castle are trying to rescue the good guys (former fund shareholders) imprisoned by the EFT guys within the...

Financial literacy has become a major area of research in recent years, both in the investment and retirement literature with respect to the increasing complexity of financial products and need to save for retirement. Studies generally find individuals are financially uninformed and lacking in...

This study documents why mutual fund markets reflect “imperfect competition.” Discussions include fund industry and legal performance, fund distribution, fund share classes, attributes of imperfect competition, actively managed funds and index funds, fund advertising, financial literacy, and...

First, this study reviews Morningstar analytical grading measures used by investors to choose mutual funds. These measures include Morningstar Star Ratings, Analyst Ratings, Total Pillar Ratings, Upside and Downside Capture Ratios, and Stewardship Ratings. Second, the study provides results of...

The research provides the mutual fund Total Cost Construct that would provide “normative transparency of disclosure" to shareholders if adopted by the fund industry and by the SEC for fund reporting and disclosure. Full disclosure would enhance analysis to estimate each cost item for samples,...

The purpose of this study is to discuss various types of agency conflicts that negatively impact mutual fund shareholder interests. In so doing, shareholders should get an improved understanding of conflicts that place them at such a disadvantage in fund investing. Many fund advisers are...

For investor and institutional class index mutual funds that track the S&P 500 Index, there are just 25 funds with statistically low expense ratios (management fee findings are found above). However, there are only five index funds - all investor class - with statistically very high and...