The multi-year trend of fund companies trimming and streamlining their product lineups rather than adding to them continued in 2004. Fund sponsors opened 191 funds in 2004, a drop of 43 percent from 2003 when they opened 336 funds, according to data from Financial Research Corporation. The Bisys unit counted 323 new funds in 2002, 340 in 2001, and 508 in 2000.

A Dying Breed?
Year	Funds Opened	Y-Y % Change
1999	355	---
2000	508	43%
2001	340	-33%
2002	323	-5%
2003	336	4%
2004	191	-43%
Source: FRC data

The number of new funds launched in 2004 was the fewest since the industry began shuttering more than it opened in 2000.

Vanguard led the pack with most fund launches, opening 29 in 2004, followed by Barclays Global Investors with 13 and Rydex Investments with 11 rounding out the double-digit club.

Despite the low overall numbers, some advisors still thought funds were a bright idea. American Express and American Century Investments opened eight funds and seven funds, respectively. ProFunds and Fidelity opened six funds, and PIMCO and ITT Hartford opened five funds. In total, fund families that opened two funds or more in 2004 represented 74 percent of all new fund openings.

Lauching Their Way to the Top
New Funds by Family	Number
Vanguard	29
BGI	13
Rydex	11
American Express	8
American Century Investments	7
Fidelity Advisor Funds	6
ProFunds	6
Source: FRC data

Approximately one out of every four new funds could be classified as a Morningstar Moderate Allocation or Large Blend fund. Also popular were Large Growth (15 funds), Large Value (12 funds) and Small Growth (10 funds).

Companies opened nine Mid-Cap Growth funds, eight Conservative Allocation and Small Value funds each, and seven Bear-Market and Speciality-Natural Resources funds, each.


 

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