Wellington Management is taking a page out of the Fidelity playbook and unbundling its research purchases from its trading. The asset manager and Vanguard ally would be the fourth firm to publicly make this move along with Janus, MFS and Fidelity.

Soft dollars, essentially credits with brokerage firms that can be used to pay for research and other services, have come under increasing scrutiny as outsiders scour Wall Street looking for conflicts of interest. In October, the SEC also revised its rules covering their use.

Wellington's decision to cease using soft dollars comes the same week that Fidelity made an agreement with Deutsche Bank to pay separately for its trading and research (it also made a similar arrangement with Lehman Brothers.

Word of the arrangement was reported on Friday by TheStreet.com. The news service based its report on "sources familiar with the company's plans" and added that Wellington will announce the decision in early 2006.

Wellington subadvises 13 funds with about $150 billion in assets for Vanguard Group.  

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE