New shareholders are entering the market en masse, but they need an education. Although the number of mutual fund investors has jumped 61% since 1995 (from 30 million to
48.4 million), respondents in the latest Investor Literacy Test conducted by Money magazine and Vanguard posted a mean score of only 37%, compared with a 1995 literacy
score of 48.5%. The survey is designed to measure investor knowledge about the fundamentals of mutual funds and financial markets.
Golin/Harris continues to widen its wingspan with the acquisition of Forrest International, a PR firm in Hong Kong and Singapore. The firm announced plans to merge with
the New York, London and Frankfurt offices of Ludgate Communications last month.
HMOs took a bath in Gallup's annual confidence rating for institutions, scoring below Congress and the criminal justice system. The U.S. military scored highest, followed
by organized religion, the police and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alan Miller leaves his post as manager of corporate diversity PR at DaimlerChrysler to found A. Miller Group, a marketing communications agency specializing in multi-
ethnic consumer markets...Mary McGeachy, most recently VP communications for Magazine Publishers of America, is named managing director, communications/PR for a new unit of the
Douglas Jones Group, a publishing consulting firm.
