It seems like every time you turn around another fund company is opening a brokerage business. Consolidating your account is what they're going after -- people really like being able to do it all in one place.

Historically,it takes a long time for a trucking company to bleed itself out of business,

Even before Merrill Lynch made its announcement, there was competition to add more bells and whistles to your Web site. Merrill's decision will definitely motivate fund companies even more.

Over the long term, they've been quite strong. A lot of these funds have been around for a while and have strong management teams.

They might be able to flourish by going with a supermarket. But who knows? It's uncharted territory. The more we see financial services firms moving to the Web, it could very much be in their (the boutique shops') interest.

This year is kind of an aberration. It probably would be good for very specific investors with specific environmental screens in mind. But only a small portion of the portfolio.