1.   Also, many people avoid mutual funds toward the end of the year because most funds distribute capital gains, which are taxable to investors, in December.

2.   And do it fast, before your fund distributes its gains.

3.   Early this year, President Clinton urged Congress to enact minimum requirements for how much advised funds must distribute to charity each year.

4.   If you want to buy such a fund, wait six months to a year, and until the fund has then distributed any realized capital gain.

5.   The mutual fund industry asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to make rule changes that would allow funds to distribute simplified prospectuses to prospective investors.

6.   The regulations governing mutual funds dictate that the funds must distribute all dividends and interest received to the shareholders, who then face the tax liability for it.

7.   Then the fund distributed short-term capital gains that were equal to more than half its net asset value.

8.   A Swiss humanitarian fund on Thursday distributed the first batch of aid to needy Holocaust survivors in this former Soviet republic.

9.   However, he said the problem was organizational, since the fund did not distribute the money itself but contracted out the distribution.