[  This is a personal non-profit online research library and is solely used by Scott Bryan Hill.  Some of the links on this page lead to outside resources and the presence of these links should not be taken as an endorsement.  ]

Personal Fund:  The best fund expense calculator on the web.

The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Mutual Fund Cost Calculator: The Mutual Fund Cost Calculator enables investors to easily estimate and compare the costs of owning mutual funds.  The Cost Calculator is great for understanding costs, but costs aren't the only thing that should be considered when investing in a mutual fund. Go directly to the SEC Calculator.

Professional Money Management Programs | Consults

Managed Accounts Lure Affluent But Are They Worth the Price?, Terry Cullen, The Wall Street Journal, November 6, 2003. “In the wake of the widening mutual-funds scandal, separately managed accounts may be starting to look especially attractive to some affluent investors and financial advisors.  With a separately managed account, a professional money manager -- who might also manage mutual funds or money for institutional investors -- also manages a basket of investments just for you.” (Professional Money Management (Managed Accounts | Consult Accounts) Costs and Fees | Active Versus Passive Debate)

Portfolio With Cachet, and Costs, Eric Baum, The New York Times, June 1, 2003.  "Private money management, once reserved for the wealthy, is being offered to thousands of mutual fund shareholders with $50,000 or less to invest. But many financial advisers warn that the private management of assets, in what are often known as separately managed accounts, may not be appropriate for people of modest wealth.  "The industry is trying to make a status symbol available to the masses," said Victor Guettlein, president of BluePrint Financial Services, a financial planning firm in Arvada, Colo. "Just because they're available doesn't mean they should be used." (Professional Money Management (Managed Accounts | Consult Accounts) Costs and Fees | Active Versus Passive Debate)

Annuities

Bucket Shops

Leaner Merrill Lynch Faces Bumps on Road to Growth, Randall Smith, The Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2003.  "After slashing costs for three years, Merrill Lynch & Co. finds itself leaner, meaner and focusing on ways to drive revenue growth.  Merrill Lynch's profit-margin boosting drive began in earnest three years ago, intensifying when Stan O'Neal took the reins as Merrill's president in July 2001. But Merrill's cost-cutting drive may have gone about as far as it can, some Wall Street analysts say. Without much more room to maneuver on the cost side, analysts fret the company's still-large brokerage operation could damp earnings growth, even with the recent market rally." (Financial Firms / Investment Plans / Merrill Lynch)

Enron Had Complained About Fired Broker UBS Employee Issued Warning on Stock, Frank Ahrens, The Washington Post, Wednesday, March 27, 2002.  “UBS PaineWebber brokers around the country are allowed to give financial advice contrary to the firm's recommendations, Sutton said in his letter. After Wu's firing, however, a new policy was instituted in Houston stating that "financial advisors should, rather than give their personal opinion, refer their clients to any relevant [company] analyst's report."  (Article (Great) / (Corporate Governance (Conflicts and Cronyism) / Financial Firms / Investment Banking / Investment Mine / Enron / Money Management / UBS / Wall Street's Settlement)

Enron Fallout:  Merrill, Ex-Executives Accused Of Aiding Enron's 'Sham' Deals, Deborah Solomon and Randall Smith, The Wall Street Journal, March 18, 2003.  "Securities regulators filed the first charges against a Wall Street financial firm stemming from the Enron Corp. debacle, 15 months after the once-powerful energy firm collapsed."  ((Corporate Governance (Conflicts and Cronyism) / Financial Firms / Investment Banking / Investment Mine / Enron / Money Management / Merrill Lynch / Wall Street's Settlement)

Risky Business, Stanley O’Neal, The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2003.  “Listening to some oracles in Washington and elsewhere these days, you'd think the corporate landscape was populated by a bunch of capitalist outlaws, out to get a buck however they can. Nothing could be further from the truth. Talking to other CEOs, both as colleagues and as clients, the common theme that emerges is their increasing aversion to any kind of risk.  In the atmosphere of cynicism and potential retribution that dominates the business landscape today, CEOs seem to want nothing more than a low profile. They are reluctant to undertake new and untested business initiatives, want no visible risk and are loathe to speak out on corporate governance matters. It's all very troubling: Risk-taking is essential to capitalism. Without it, the system can't function.”  ("Business as Usual" / Corporate Governance (Conflicts and Cronyism) / Financial Firms / Investment Banking / Investment Mine / Market History / Merrill Lynch / Wall Street's Settlement)

A Tale of a Broker, His Clients And the End of the Bubble Era, Jacob M. Schlesinger and Bryan Grulley, The Wall Street Journal, December 27, 2002.   “In the search for what went wrong in the stock boom-gone-bust, debates have focused on greedy executives, corrupt accountants and lax regulators. But the bubble never would have inflated without ordinary Americans -- like Mr. Randall and some of his clients: Ms. Walker, divorce lawyer Robert E. Holmes Jr., and contractor James Lundy Jr. and his son, J.R.  In the 1990s, the number of Americans owning stock swelled by 30 million to more than 80 million, a mania unseen since the 1920s. The new national passion suffused the circle of investors who revolved around Mr. Randall, 40. The native Texan was a bored banker who joined Merrill Lynch in 1995, just as the boom in tech and telecom stocks was gathering force. He persuaded friends and family to join him on the ride to riches.”  (Behavior Finance / Financial Firms / Market History)

An Iceberg of Irate Investors, Gretchen Morgenson, The New York Times, February 9, 2003.  "Francis Edward Wolfe, a close-cropped, soft-spoken family man who hoped to travel the country with his wife in a motor home when he retired, hardly seems intimidating. But this 58-year-old former truck driver from Fredericksburg, Ohio, and other investors like him, have become one big nightmare for Wall Street. Mr. Wolfe sued Merrill Lynch last year over $172,000 in stock market losses in his 401(k) plan, and last month, arbitrators awarded him $310,000, including legal expenses."  (Aftershock of the Bubble / Financial Planning / Market History / Marketing Technology Funds)