Most people could benefit from the help of some sort of trained adviser, ... do more to confuse than help.
The funds are trying to break out from a very crowded marketplace.
Building assets is very, very challenging unless you have a good story to tell. There are a lot of funds out there with mediocre stories to tell.
Whether these suits have any validity is another question, but I think you're going to see more of them. I've seen ads saying, 'If you've been a customer of XYZ firm and lost money, you'll be able to recover it.' You'll see a lot of ambulance-chasing lawyers trying to feed off of this.
If those funds have a good, long-term record, you can stay within a fund family.
These companies have to get out from the real and perceived conflicts of selling home-cooked funds. This solves a lot of problems for Merrill Lynch.
the ability to pick stocks is the important criteria.
Everybody is scrambling to build alliances and set up distribution channels.
It's like watching a peep show. Do you want to watch a portfolio manager pick his nose 24 hours a day? It's a gimmick.
All of them better look to this kind of disclosure.
