Even before Merrill Lynch made its announcement, there was competition to add more bells and whistles to your Web site. Merrill's decision will definitely motivate fund companies even more. |
It seems like every time you turn around another fund company is opening a brokerage business. Consolidating your account is what they're going after -- people really like being able to do it all in one place. |
Over the long term, they've been quite strong. A lot of these funds have been around for a while and have strong management teams. |
They might be able to flourish by going with a supermarket. But who knows? It's uncharted territory. The more we see financial services firms moving to the Web, it could very much be in their (the boutique shops') interest. |
This year is kind of an aberration. It probably would be good for very specific investors with specific environmental screens in mind. But only a small portion of the portfolio. |