I was tempted to wander down to the financial district and search for signs of agony in the faces of mutual fund executives. Those money managers already have enough to worry about without Forrester Research Inc., the Cambridge, Mass.-based Internet research firm, trying to put a fright into them. But generating a little agitation for all types of businesses is what Forrester, along with its crystal ball-gazing peers, counts on to sell research. Forrester habitually makes far-flung guesses about how the Internet will change the world. Usually the forecast is so far out in the future that it's hard to remember the original prediction.
Investors now have no control over distributions and fees remain fairly high.
It' s not about the end of advice, it's about the fixing of a broken product. While Mr. Punishill may have a point about the benefits of mutual fund customization, I felt compelled to question his numbers and the ensuing market shift prediction. We're about direction of magnitude. We put a number out there because the press likes them and someone has to put them into a business plan. All we're trying to say is these things are important.