Robertson Stephens Is Among New Small-Stock Fund Offerings

Mutual-fund companies don’t seem too worried about this summer’s sell-off in small stocks, judging from the rash of new portfolios they have introduced since early August.

Among the offerings: two new small-company funds from Robertson Stephens in San Francisco and Scudder, Stevens & Clark of New York. The Acorn family in Chicago also brought out a new fund.

“We see a lot of opportunity in the [small-stock] area moving forward,” says Jeff Hawkins, a spokesman for Robertson Stephens. He says most of the stocks that went public over the last year and a half are not followed closely on Wall Street, presenting opportunities for managers who pick and choose among the smallest firms.

Robertson Stephens ([800] 766-3863) has a portfolio that does just that. Its new Micro Cap Fund seeks out companies with stock market values below $250 million. The company also unveiled a Diversified Growth Fund that can buy stocks of any size, with a bias toward smaller ones.

Scudder ([800] 225-2470) also has a Micro Cap product that targets the 4,000 smallest U.S. companies--those worth under $180 million or so. Another new offering, Scudder 21st Century Growth, invests in a broader band of small firms worth up to $750 million each.

The new Acorn USA Fund ([800] 922-6769), also a small-stock portfolio, is being billed as the group’s only vehicle that invests exclusively in U.S. companies.

All of the above funds are no-load products, although the two Scudder portfolios levy 1% redemption charges for people selling out within the first year.

Hancock Merger: Shareholders at John Hancock Funds in Boston have done their part to help stem the rapid proliferation of mutual funds. They recently voted to merge the assets of the John Hancock Gold & Government Fund and the John Hancock Global Resources Fund into a third portfolio, John Hancock Special Opportunities. All three funds have had the same manager, Kevin Baker, who will stay on at the latter.

Special Opportunities targets five industries that Baker thinks will offer the best growth prospects going forward. Currently, these include precious metals and natural resources--areas that were targeted by the two other funds.

Empty Nest Bonus: “Empty nesters” really do receive a monetary boost after their children finally fly the coop.

About 85% of parents said they had more money available after their kids left home and became financially independent, according to a survey by Kemper Funds in Chicago. Of these, 67% reported an annual boost of $5,000 or more. Roughly 1,000 Americans 40 to 59 years old were polled in the survey, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

And on what did parents spend their newfound wealth?

Entertainment/dining was the top choice, followed by charities and travel.

From ‘A’ to ‘T’: Fidelity Investments of Boston recently changed the name of its broker-sold Advisor A mutual funds to Advisor T portfolios. These products carry a front-end sales charge of 3.5%, plus 0.5% a year in ongoing 12b-1 costs.

However, the firm also has come out with a new set of Advisor A funds carrying a top 5.25% sales charge, along with a 0.25% 12b-1 charge. Fidelity’s Advisor subfamily counted $29 billion in assets at midyear.

Vote Pocketbook?: If you own small stocks, you might want to vote for President Clinton in November. Since the end of the Depression in 1937, small stocks have risen 17.2% a year on average under Democratic presidents and just 10.2% under Republicans, Liberty Financial in Boston reports.

They gained an even more impressive 19.9% a year on average from Clinton’s inauguration in January 1993 through June 1996.

“While it is generally accepted that Republican administrations are often good for big business, the Democratic focus on reducing unemployment tends to help small business,” said Kenneth Leibler, Liberty’s president and chief executive.

But large stocks do slightly better under Republicans, having gained 11.9% annually since 1937 compared with 10.2% under Democrats.

New at the Supermarket: American Express Financial Direct, which this year launched a supermarket of no-load mutual funds from various families, has added three portfolios to its mix.

They are IDS Small Company Index, which will own the same stocks as represented in the Standard & Poor’s SmallCap 600 Index; IDS Research Opportunities and Strategist Special Growth. The latter two are aggressive growth funds.

All three are available on a commission-free basis through the company ([800] AXP-8800).

Tax Refund Makes the Grade: If you paid taxes on employer-provided education benefits, you could be entitled to a refund. A new law allows taxpayers to exclude up to $5,250 in educational-assistance benefits from income, retroactive to Jan. 1, 1995. However, the tax benefit does not extend to graduate-level courses that began after June 30, 1996.

Employers, too, may be entitled to a refund on Social Security, Medicare and unemployment taxes paid on educational benefits.

Call the Internal Revenue Service at (800) 829-1040.

Russ Wiles is a financial writer for the Arizona Republic.