Last month Fortune claimed that "it was Pimco who drew the first blade" in killing the mutual fund industry [see MFWire.com, 1/25/2012], and now the Wall Street Journal is taking a similarly gloomy outlook on the coming launch of the Pimco Total Return ETF [profile] on March 1. Specifically, in the WSJ's monthly "investing in funds" special report, Tom Lauricella worries that "the popularity of ETFs is threatening to kill off what was long a linchpin of mutual funds: 12b-1 fees."

The WSJ notes that distribution infrastructure for ETFs isn't really in place yet, at least not when compared to 12b-1-centric distribution in much of the mutual fund world. And the pub also wonders if smaller mutual fund firms will stand a chance in the low-margin, scale-intensive world of ETFs.

Morningstar's Eric Jacobson weighed in for the story. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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