The Fund Industry: How Your Money is Managed

In 2009, more than 87 million Americans invested their money through mutual funds, using them as vehicles to save for such important life goals as the purchase of a home, a child’s education, or a comfortable retirement. Many businesses rely on money market mutual funds for help in managing their cash balances. Mutual funds are an increasingly popular savings vehicle in Europe, Asia, and other regions of the world. Despite its proliferation, it is a highly complex industry comprising tens of thousands of mutual funds worldwide with over $20 trillion in assets and offering different investment objectives and approaches to consumers through multiple channels amid detailed regulations that are continually evolving.

In THE FUND INDUSTRY (Wiley; February 2011; $75.00; 978-0-470-63425-7; Hardcover), Robert Pozen, Chairman Emeritus of MFS Investment Management and a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, and Theresa Hamacher, President of NICSA (The National Investment Company Service Association) and a former mutual fund chief investment officer, examine how mutual funds are structured and discuss the key laws and regulations governing their operations. They go behind the scenes to explain how fund managers select investments for fund portfolios, sell fund shares around the globe, and provide service to fund shareholders.

THE FUND INDUSTRY:

• Discusses the history and growth of mutual funds, as well as how they rank in comparison to alternative investment vehicles, such as ETFs and hedge funds
• Examines how to evaluate funds, categorizing them by security type and investment objective and researching them using the prospectus, shareholder reports, and third-party reviews
• Explains how mutual funds are sold through brokers, banks, insurance agents, retirement plans, and fund supermarkets and the roles of the independent directors, transfer agents, and fund accountants
• Addresses the global fund industry, summarizing trends in asset gathering outside the United States, and money market funds, a category that has received much more attention as a result of the credit crisis of 2008
• Includes a companion website that provides supplementary materials, including a teacher’s guide

THE FUND INDUSTRY is an in-depth guide to navigating the mutual fund industry, written in an accessible style with many examples and charts.