The Fund Industry: How Your Money is Managed

Book Preface

Scores of books tell investors how to choose a mutual fund. Dozens more feature famous fund managers recounting their investment glories. A handful of texts even offer thoughts on how to reform and improve the fund industry. But there’s no other book that gives readers such a thorough overview of how the fund industry operates, its evolution, its regulation, and what makes it tick. If you want to truly understand today’s mutual fund industry, there’s no finer text than the one in your hands.

Mutual funds have become the investment vehicle of choice for investors around the world, and with good reason. No other investment offers the same level of convenience and diversification at such an affordable price. Funds revolutionized and democratized the investment landscape. Yet the industry itself goes largely unexamined. Small investment partnerships and family businesses have morphed into global financial powerhouses seemingly overnight, dramatically altering the investment landscape, yet few fully understand the fund industry’s structure, its distribution methods, and its back-office workings.

If you are one of the millions of fund investors and you want to know how your money is processed and managed, not just which funds had the highest return, this book is for you. Similarly, if you work for a fund company, are involved in fund distribution, or work perhaps as an independent director for a fund, this text has much to offer. If you are an auditor, lawyer, or custodian or work for one of the many data services companies involved with the fund industry, this text will be invaluable. Moreover, journalists, policymakers, and professors following the industry and its transformational role in capital markets will find this text an indispensable reference