Companies studied by Corporate Insight included Vanguard, Bank of America, Edward Jones, Scottrade and Morgan Stanley.

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Russell recently closed 25 of 26 of their funds, and Scottrade abandoned all of theirs.

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Yet they are available at Charles Schwab, E-Trade, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade and TIAA-CREF.

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Troublingly, when Scottrade asked what age a person should begin retirement savings, Gen Y respondents replied 29.

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Scottrade closed 15 FocusShare ETFs this month that tracked Morningstar indices.

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With free trades for Scottrade clients, the company was gunning for Schwab and Vanguard as the low-cost provider of portfolio building blocks.

FORBES: ETF Distribution Breakdown

You can minimize these by choosing a discount brokerage or no-load mutual fund company like Vanguard, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, or Scottrade.

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According to Chris Moloney, CMO of Scottrade, an Internet brokerage firm, senior marketers need a better understanding of how relationships between offline and online advertising work.

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Scottrade took the FocusShares gambit after the fund firm closed some more esoteric products in 2008. ( The WalMart Supplier Index ETF, anyone?) In 2011, FocusShares relaunched with broad-based ETFs on Morningstar indexes.

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"Many people think of Internet advertising as an intrusive, interruptive experience, with dancing aliens jumping across the screen and perpetual pop-up windows, " Moloney says, adding that Scottrade favors ads that provide information that is meaningful to customers, such as a real-time stock chart it offers through an ad on Yahoo.

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