Fund Openings, Closings, Manager Moves: GE to Sell Its Funds Via the Web

In an unusual move, broker-sold GE Funds will start offering its funds directly to investors -- with no sales charge -- through its new consumer financial Web site, gefn.com.

The move is notable because brokers typically chafe when a fund group starts selling directly to investors, essentially cutting them out of the transaction. But GE might be willing to incur brokers' wrath because not many have sold its funds anyway.

GE Asset Management, a $115 billion subsidiary of the giant conglomerate, manages about $90 billion on behalf of GE employees. The firm also manages 17 retail mutual funds for nonemployees, but they only have $2.3 billion in assets, according to a spokesman. Nearly all the GE retail funds were started in the 1990s, and many are below $100 million in assets, the point at which the average fund turns a profit. ...