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THE LAST WORD When there's nothing "MUTUAL" about Mutual Funds! It will soon be the RRSP season once again. The March 1* deadline approaches for placing all of those ex- ally take advantage of time- zone differences in interna- tional funds, where events after overseas markets close often make stock prices in the funds out of date. Sadly, this is not illegal and it hurts the 'little guy like you and me' because parts of the Funds profits are siphoned off by these professional traders. It is a huge business and the num- bers involved are staggering: $220 BILLION between 2000 and 2003. I won't mention the names of the four ma- tra pennies in your RRSP in the hope of retiring a million- jor fund companies however, sufficient to say that if you aire before the age of 55. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but according to recent revelations, if some of the major mutual fund companies in Canada have anything to do with it, you might just have to wait a bit longer before ac- cepting the gold watch. Here's why: According to a national source, "The brokerage arms of three of Canada'sbig banks are facing unprece- dented fines totaling about $25-million for their alleged role in helping professional investors engage in question- able market timing activities in mutual funds." For your information, market timing involves rapid in-and-out trad- ing in a mutual fund by market professionals who gener- PUZZLE alii SOLUTION 24 EX- (PLIC (anag. clip)) -IT SIMILITUDE (anag. utilise dim) 9 'ma EACH (anag. ache) Sli STAG-IN-G N 5 H fa Iv Hof MY - STER- (anag. rest) -Y 'Hl w[1]v]g] Su 10] [v] ere DOWN 2 fOR-LONg Bo] 3 TH- (ROW)-E-R [2 4 s-TIP-ENDS 218] ¢ AL®-LIED 1 S-OF-TEST 7? Yona TT 8 S-(PILL)-WAYS 5 CANVAS-S 9 HE - TERO (anag, tore) GENE - 10 B-(L)-UR (rub rev.) 0-US 11 IDEA-LIST-I-C 15 A-NARC-HIS-T 12 A-NY-W-HERE 17 PR- (OPHES(anag. hopes)) -Y 13 EX -TOL (lot rev.) 19 MEAN- (anag. name) -IN - G 14 S- (AC -RED)-COW 21 R- (AIM) -ENT 16 ORGAN (anag. groan) 22 ASS-IGN (anag. gin) 18 BALMY 25 IN-(C) -UR (anag, ruin) 20 T- (ERROR) -ISE (anag. site) t=) own RRSP's, there is a high likelihood that you own their funds. Ever wondered why your mutual fund was not in- creasing at the rate you had hoped and yet the mutual fund companies continue to draw their fees BEFORE paying us our dividends, if any. In one of the largest fund companies I checked, one of their funds recorded an annual com- pounded 5.74 per cent, (a low return) and the management expense ratio was 2.51 per cent. Who is the real gainer here? Who carries the risk? That's a no-brainer as we all know. It's about time this industry had a really big shake out and cleaned up its act. This RRSP season check out the funds which are beginning to be offered on a NO GAIN -- NO COMMISSION basis. You might be pleas- antly surprised. Bill Yates, Friend of The County. p.s. It seems that investors are finally becoming more discerning about which mutual funds they will use as their investment vehicles. One very well known in- vestment advisor south of the border said as recently as this week: "I am old enough to remember when low turnover was one hallmark of a good equity mutual fund. Today, stock turnover rates well in excess of 100% are the norm. No wonder so few funds match, never mind beat the market." Fix that phrase in your minds... .. NO WONDER SO FEW (MUTUAL) FUNDS MATCH, NEVER MIND BEAT THE (STOCK) MAR- KET. There are about 3000 Mutual Funds from which to choose to invest your hard earned $$$'s for the next 10, 20 or 30 years. On scanning all of the major compa- Continued on page 14