I asked each of the top 10 investment companies, ranked here by assets, 
which of the industry's new ''best practices'' they followed. As the scores 
below indicate, they all do well on that account. Where they fall short: Many 
still take staggering sums from investors via so-called ''12b-1'' fees to 
defray marketing costs.

                      ''BEST               12b-1
FUND                  PRACTICES''         REVENUE
COMPANY                SCORE             (MILLIONS*)

FIDELITY INVESTMENTS    100%                $357.4

VANGUARD GROUP          95                  0.0

AMERICAN FUNDS GROUP    82                  697.2

PUTNAM INVESTMENTS      92                  865.8

MERRILL LYNCH ASSET
 MANAGEMENT             95                  354.7

FRANKLIN TEMPLETON
 GROUP                  68                  305.7

TIAA-CREF               97                  0.0

SSB CITI ASSET
 MANAGEMENT             84                  181.3

FEDERATED INVESTORS     100                 64.8

MORGAN STANLEY
 DEAN WITTER            NA                  522.1


*Annual estimates from current 12b-1 charges on net assets as of June 30, 
1999

NA=Not available

DATA: MORNINGSTAR INC., INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE, BUSINESS WEEK