Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[marketmaven]

Hey, Zeev- it only took them 10 months to figure this out. Love that Edward Jones article in the WSJ said they're "the best practice in the industry"

SEC Probe of Fund Sales Practices
Show There Are Widespread Abuses
By JUDITH BURNS - DOW JONES NEWSWIRES – 13 January 2004
WASHINGTON -- Mutual funds commonly pay brokers for promoting their shares but investors may not be aware of the practice known as "revenue sharing," regulators said Tuesday. Recent examinations by the Securities and Exchange Commission found 14 out of 15 brokers received cash payments for selling mutual funds and 13 of the 15 seemed to have favored funds making such payments. Fund advisors also sometimes reward brokers for featuring their funds by directing brokerage trades to them, the SEC found. As scandals simmered across the $7-trillion mutual fund business, the SEC said it found that "revenue sharing" -- or mutual funds paying brokerages to tout the funds' shares -- is "common practice," based on a probe launched in April 2003. The SEC said it is now investigating "dozens of broker-dealers and mutual funds that engaged in this practice to “determine whether they adequately informed investors” of the conflicts of interest."