Who would have guessed it? Like in everything else the rich are getting richer. The Web sites of Fidelity and Vanguard were two of the highest scoring in this year's Kasina rankings of fund firm Web sites. The pair joins American Century, Schwab, Scudder, Stein Roe, Strong, and T. Rowe Price as the only firms to rank among the top sites in each of the studies five years.

"In general, the Top 20 sites and the Top 10 small fund sites are doing a much better job servicing clients than the overall industry," explained Steven Miyao, chief executive officer of Kasina. "While this gap continues to be large, we are seeing the margin decreasing as the industry strives to follow the lead of the top sites. One area where we continue to see slow growth overall is the adoption of innovative and value-added Web technologies."

Still, there continue to be some surprises found in the study of 478 sites. Only 53 percent of retail sites let investors view their account balances online, seemingly the most basic and most requested of services at this point of time.

Only two-thirds 66 percent of firms encourage direct investments through their site and only five percent of retail sites allow investors to open an account completely online. Kasina did not break down how those figures fell based on whether firms distribute share directly or through intermediaries.

Top 3 Sites in Each of Kasina's 5 Evaluation Categories

Branding:

1. The Montgomery Funds -
2. The Vanguard Group -
3. Zurich Scudder Investments -

Content:

1. Fidelity Investments -
2. The Vanguard Group -
3. T. Rowe Price -

Online Services:

1. Fidelity Investments -
2. The Vanguard Group -
3. INVESCO Funds Group -

Usability:

1. INVESCO Funds Group -
2. Strong Investments -
3. The Vanguard Group -

Web Technology:

1. Fidelity Investments -
2. American Century Investments -
3. INVESCO Funds Group -

Top 20 Web Sites - Mutual Funds (alphabetically):

AIM Management Group - aimfunds.com
American Century Investments - americancentury.com
Berger Funds - bergerfunds.com
Calvert Group - calvert.com
Charles Schwab & Co. - schwab.com
E*TRADE Group - etrade.com
Fidelity Investments - fidelity.com
INVESCO Funds Group - invescofunds.com
The Montgomery Funds - montgomeryfunds.com
One Group Mutual Funds - onegroup.com
Salomon Smith Barney - salomonsmithbarney.com
Stein Roe & Farnham - steinroe.com
Strong Investments - strong.com
TIAA-CREF - tiaa-cref.org
T. Rowe Price - troweprice.com
The Vanguard Group - vanguard.com
TD Waterhouse Group - waterhouse.com
Wells Fargo - wellsfargo.com
Westcore Funds - westcore.com
Zurich Scudder Investments - scudder.com

Top 10 Web Sites - Smal Fund Firms (alphabetically):

Berger Funds - bergerfunds.com
Calvert Group - calvert.com
Gabelli Asset Management - gabelli.com
The Montgomery Funds - montgomeryfunds.com
Pax World Funds - paxfund.com
RS Investments - rsinvestments.com
SAFECO Mutual Funds - safecofunds.com
Sentinel Funds - sentinelfunds.com
Stein Roe & Farnham - steinroe.com
Westcore Funds - westcore.com
 

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