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Mutual funds are a great way for a person to invest money in the stock market without having to hire a stock broker or become savvy about the way Wall Street works. While investments in mutual funds are not insured by the government, mutual fund investments are generally "safer" than buying shares of stock in particular... more »
Having a personal retirement plan is an excellent way to ensure a comfortable life when you're no longer willing or able to work. There are a number of ways to do that, including Individual Retirement Accounts, Mutual Funds, Savings Accounts or other investments. When considering the choice between a Mutual Fund or an Annuity, it's... more »
Diversification, or spreading your risk among a variety of different investment options, may be the best advice any broker ever gave. Americans have responded by pouring huge sums of money into mutual funds both for personal savings and in Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k)'s. But with the recent volatility of the stock market,... more »
The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, or CIBC, is a major financial services company. The organization was created by the 1961 merger of the Canadian Bank of Commerce and the Imperial Bank of Canada. In addition to providing traditional banking functions, financial planning and travel insurance, CIBC also operates an investments... more »
Franklin Templeton Mutual Funds are a family of mutual funds that are managed and sold by the global investment management organization, Franklin Templeton Investments. The parent company, Franklin Resources, Inc., has offices in 30 countries around the world and offers investment services in more than 150 countries. The company is... more »
Mutual funds are a conservative way for a beginner to break into the world of investing. With...
Mutual funds offer you the chance to invest in several assets in one big lump, instead of...
No one can be faulted for making business investments to secure their future and earn more...
Investing is just a way to look at securing your future. If you are looking to buy a home,...
Mutual funds are one of the most popular types of stock market investments. There are literally thousands of mutual funds available, each with its... more »
Mutual funds are divided into many different groups, depending on their investment philosophy and trading strategies. For instance, mutual... more »
Mutual funds are a specific type of collective, pooled resource investments unique to the United States and Canada. The average value of the... more »
Mutual funds provide a great way for investors to build a portfolio without the burden of selecting individual securities. Not long ago, mutual... more »
Variable annuities and mutual funds both offer ways of investing while still managing risk. Variable annuities provide payments over the lifespan... more »
Many investment pros want to sell you the way to find the best mutual funds, but the truth is that the best funds for someone else may not be the... more »
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors and invests it in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities. The mutual fund will have a fund manager that trades the pooled money on a regular basis. The net proceeds or losses are then typically distributed to the investors annually.
Since 1940, there have been three basic types of investment companies in the United States: open-end funds, also known in the U.S. as mutual funds; unit investment trusts (UITs); and closed-end funds.
Similar funds also operate in Canada.
However, in the rest of the world, mutual fund is used as a generic term for various types of collective investment vehicles, such as unit trusts, open-ended investment companies (OEICs), unitized insurance funds, and undertakings for collective investments in transferable securities (UCITS).
History
Massachusetts Investors Trust (now MFS Investment Management) was founded on March 21, 1924, and, after one year, it had 200 shareholders and $392,000 in assets. The entire industry, which included a few closed-end funds represented less than $10 million in 1924.
The stock market crash of 1929 hindered the growth of mutual funds. In response to the stock market crash, Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These laws require that a fund be registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and provide prospective investors with a prospectus that contains required disclosures about the fund, the securities themselves, and fund manager. The Investment Company Act of 1940 sets forth the guidelines with which all SEC-registered funds today must comply.
With renewed confidence in the stock market, mutual funds began to blossom. By the end of the 1960s, there were approximately 270 funds with $48 billion in assets. The first retail index fund, First Index Invest read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual+fund
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