By JASON CHOW

Philip Jeyaretnam says that being the boss at Singapore’s oldest law firm is limiting his literary ambitions. The 47-year-old lawyer—whose late father was a leading opposition politician in Singapore—took over as managing partner at Rodyk & Davidson LLP in January.

Rodyk & Davidson LLP

Philip Jeyaretnam

He says the demands of running the firm—which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year—have impeded his other career as a fiction writer. “My next novel will have to wait until I’m done with being managing partner,” says Mr. Jeyaretnam, who has already published two novels, both set in his native Singapore, and several collections of short stories.

Mr. Jeyaretnam says he wants to grow Rodyk’s business beyond the city-state. Currently, the firm’s only office outside Singapore is in Shanghai, though Rodyk claims specific expertise in Indonesia and India. It currently has 170 lawyers in its Singapore office, a number it hopes to increase to 200 by 2013.

But building a stronger regional presence is a challenge—there’s tough local and international competition across Asia, while regulations in many Asian countries can restrict access for foreign legal firms. Mr. Jeyaretnam recently spoke with The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Chow about the legal landscape in Asia. The following interview has been edited.

WSJ: How does your writing affect your legal career, and vice versa? Mr. Jeyaretnam: They both feed off my interest in stories. As a lawyer, it really isn’t just about the arguments. It’s about what the real story is and how I get it across to a judge. It’s similar to being a writer: You have to be interested in what’s happening in people’s lives and a desire to structure it into a story.

WSJ: What are the main challenges for a local Asian law firm like Rodyk & Davidson trying to expand regionally?

Mr. Jeyaretnam: First, the jurisdictions across Asia, for the most part, remain protected legal silos. But, secondly, the level of cross-border and international transactions, is increasing. Thirdly, Asia still remains culturally diverse and fairly traditional, so having an understanding of the specific culture of a particular place remains important.

WSJ: How has the legal profession in Asia changed in your 23 years as a lawyer?

Mr. Jeyaretnam: From the early 1990s, China leapfrogged other Asian jurisdictions by being open in allowing foreign law firms to practice their own foreign law in China. That transformed the landscape. If you asked people in the 1980s about the Chinese legal profession, it didn’t even exist at that point in time. The second thing has been the growth of international transactions. There’s greater activity by financial institutions and funds in projects outside of their own countries. There’s this convergence of standards and structures around the world. Also, there’s been an increase in using arbitration as a dispute-resolution method. This has attracted English and American law firms. If you looked at the Asian landscape in the mid-1980s, you wouldn’t see such a strong presence among international law firms. What we haven’t seen is a really strong Asian multi-jurisdictional law firm. The big question is whether those Asian law firms who practice in the cross-border space, like Rodyk, can overcome the regulatory silos and actually achieve real scale as regional firms.

WSJ: What’s the best way to understand the application of the law in different countries in Asia?

Mr. Jeyaretnam: You can’t assume things operate the same as they do at home. You look for sources of information and understanding to reduce the risk of being blind-sided by ignorance of how a place works beyond the laws that are on paper. If you only talk to lawyers in a particular place, you’ll get a certain restricted view of things. If you talk to a lawyer in Vietnam or Indonesia, you’ll be quoted what’s in the statute books. But apart from being a lawyer, I’m a writer and I have contacts with other writers and artists. Sometimes, to understand a country like Indonesia, for example, it’s just as valuable to talk to an Indonesian journalist as it is to an Indonesian lawyer. It’s important to keep your sources open.

WSJ: How do you help international clients understand the uneven approach to application of business law in some Asian countries?

Mr. Jeyaretnam: There aren’t any easy answers. We’ve reached the stage for some aspiring economies in Asia where this issue is probably a key barrier to future investment and prosperity. Essentially, it’s a big tax on doing business and it’s holding countries back. I can’t promise a magic wand. You hope for the local knowledge that will get you through, but you appreciate that the other side has accumulated knowledge too. This is particularly an issue in Indonesia and India. If you enter into a contract and something goes wrong, you’ll find yourself getting an arbitration award but struggling [to get it enforced because of] derailing applications in the courts. The opportunities for businesses outweigh [the uneven legal systems], but just imagine how much better the economy can do if you solve this sort of problem so that people doing business don’t have to worry so much when they risk their money.

WSJ: What are the challenges to Rodyk’s regional ambitions?

Mr. Jeyaretnam: One, international law firms can strengthen their positions so that the firms that come from smaller jurisdictions, like our own, will be squeezed from above. Secondly, we have some very powerful economies in Asia—China, Indonesia, India—and the latter two remain jurisdictional silos. They don’t allow foreign law firms to directly practice in those countries. [Local firms] are building on the increased economic activity in their own jurisdictions and we could get squeezed by those firms too.

Underlying the annual ranking of the Best Mutual Fund Families from Barron’s and Lipper is the one-year performance of their funds across five categories, including world equities (both global and international), tax-exempt bonds, U.S. equities, taxable bonds and mixed-equities (stocks, bonds, and other securities). When we spoke with the victors from each group a year ago, a number identified municipal bonds as a particular favorite heading into 2011 (“Where the Thrills and Chills Will Be in 2011,” Feb. 7, 2011). General muni funds subsequently returned 10.56% that year. So we thought it was worth our while to talk to 2011′s top performers to get their thoughts. Gold was just one asset they liked.

“NO ONE IS GOING to stop drinking beer in Sao Paulo because Italian banks have a problem,” says Rajiv Jain, a senior portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management, sub-advisor to Virtus Investment Partners, which had the best fund performance in our world equities category.

It was a bad year for emerging markets, but Jain’s focus on local consumers helped avert a sharp loss for his investors. The largest of the three funds he oversees, the $2.6 billion Virtus Emerging Markets Opportunities A Fund (ticker: HEMZX), was down just 3.1%, versus the MSCI Emerging Markets Index’s 18.42% loss. The $1 billion Foreign Opportunities Fund (JVIAX) was actually up 0.26%, while its benchmark, the MSCI EAFE Index, fell 12.14% and Jain’s $68.8 million Virtus Global Opportunities A (NWWOX) climbed 5.37%, against a 7.35% decline for the MSCI AC World Index.

Jain believes that investors are underestimating the severity of Europe’s banking problems, so he’s steered clear of emerging-markets companies that serve European or U.S. consumers. “We don’t own exporters in emerging markets,” he says.

Another way to staunch the bleeding: He avoided deeply cyclical or commodity-driven companies. Instead, he invests in high-quality names that benefit from the world’s growing middle class, including Brazilian beer drinkers. “They want to dress better, drink better, and want all of the basic necessities we take for granted,” he says. In total, this emerging middle class includes about 2.5 billion customers.

Right now, he prefers the best-known brand names, such as Coca-Cola (KO), that are expanding globally. “The Cokes of this world have phenomenal potential to grow long-term and they are not that expensive,” he says. Jain demands predictable earnings and sustainable performance, which leads to a concentrated portfolio of mature companies that can capture a large part of the up-cycle without being very exposed to potential risks.

Among his picks: British American Tobacco (BATS.U.K.), Philip Morris International (PM), Imperial Tobacco Group (ITYBY) and Nestlé (NSRGY). He also likes Nestlé India (500790.India) and Companhia de Bebidas das Américas, also known as Ambev (ABV).

“Our strategy has been the same since 2009 and we are not changing it now,” he says. Good thinking.

TIAA-CREF, BEST KNOWN for running teachers’ retirement accounts, took some of its rivals to school on tax-exempt bond funds last year. The $351 million TIAA-CREF Tax-Exempt Bond Retail Fund (TIXRX), which is open to any investor, has a yield of 2.97% and was up nearly 12% in 2011.That’s a superb one-year gain for a tax-free fund.

Portfolio manager Barnet Sherman uses fundamental credit research to identify values among bonds that back essential public services. “People talk about the trouble with credits but at the end of the day you can’t roll up the sidewalks,” he says. Munis have had a positive return that’s been compounding for most of the past 30 years.

His portfolio, which has low turnover, is broadly diversified with 270 positions representing more than 30 states and general-obligation bonds from 14 issuers ranging from Rhode Island to California.

Sherman likes to go right to the source to get his information. “We call borrowers directly,” he says, “and ask them about specific points, about how exactly they collect taxes and how their assessments are done. How does the money transfer to the trustee?”

He invests in bonds from well-established names, including those in health care, like the Cleveland Clinic, Cedars-Sinai and Johns Hopkins Health. He also like bonds issued by colleges like Syracuse University, the University of Mississippi and Yeshiva University.

Puerto Rico is a particular favorite and TIAA-CREF owns a number of issues with different maturities. “Puerto Rico continues to be a solid and performing credit,” he says. But, he cautions, “We don’t rely on one bond to do all of the work,” he says.

Sherman maintains that municipal bonds of public-purpose entities will continue to be attractive because they provide stability. As for concerns that public finance could lose some of its tax-exemption as budgets tighten, the one-time Capitol Hill aide refuses to speculate. “The topic seems to come up every election year,” he says.

He does think that bonds that support and strengthen the fabric of a community will do well. That will continue as long as “you get up in the morning and brush your teeth or get in the car to drop your kids off the school.”

MOST MUTUAL-FUND FAMILIES are either active or passive U.S. equity investors. But State Street Global Advisors, which oversees $1.9 trillion, is both. Aside from its massive exchange-traded-fund business, the firm has $114 billion in actively managed assets.

Last year, it added a quantitative approach via its tiny SSgA US Small Cap Mutual Fund (SVSCX), which rose 4.5%. Although it wasn’t much of a contributor to its ranking, the fund easily topped small-caps’ 4.2% decline in 2011.

“We take the temperature of the environment monthly and adjust the portfolio, according to the indicators in the model,” explains Marc Reinganum, who oversees the active -management group at the firm. The model tracks everything from volatility and momentum to market leadership and valuation. It paid off nicely in last year’s volatile market. “We have since seeded other funds using the same quant method,” he says.

But State Street’s formidable stable of exchange-traded funds most helped its overall showing because our ranking weights a firm’s performance based on the size of individual funds. Low fees also present strong competition in a tough year for active managers. So, for instance, State Street’s $12 billion SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average Fund (DIA), whose strong dividend payments helped it earn an 8% return, gave a boost to the firm.

Kevin Quigg, the head of global ETF strategy at the firm, thinks that investors will take a belt-and-suspenders approach in the new year. As noted in the preceding story, investors want exposure to equities, but they also want to be paid to wait for an upturn.

One possibility for the wary is the SPDR S&P Dividend Fund (SDY), which includes companies that have raised dividends every year for the past 25 years, says Quigg.

For the less cautious, there is the S&P Emerging Markets Small Cap Fund (EWX), which dropped more than 30% last year. Quigg notes that institutions have been rolling money into the hard-hit fund, which includes some frontier markets and “smaller companies which derive their success from the local consumer.”

GE ASSET MANAGEMENT, which has $115 billion assets under management ($42 billion from the conglomerate’s pension plan), led the pack in taxable bonds. Paul Colonna is the president and chief investment officer of a fixed-income team that includes 49 researchers, portfolio managers, and traders who handle roughly $55 billion.

A good proxy for the group is the $394 million GE Institutional Income Investment Fund (GFIIX), which is available to institutional investors. Its 7.97% gain last year topped the 7.84% return on the Barclays Capital Aggregate Bond Index. The core-plus fund contains investment-grade corporate securities, U.S. Treasuries, mortgage-backed securities, emerging-market debt and high-yield bonds.

Colonna says that GE accurately predicted a number of the macro factors like Federal Reserve easing, a continued European debt crisis and the legislative stalemate caused by the approaching U.S. presidential election. “We had a major move down in interest rates during the year, and we were set up for that,” he says. GE started buying longer-dated Treasuries last February, a shrewd move in light of their roughly 10% rise.

The firm also sold high-yield debt in March and April. “When the crises hit in August, high-yield spreads widened back out; we bought them in August and September” just prior to their substantial year-end gains, he says.

This economic cycle is different from others, says Colonna. Many investors and analysts have underestimated the intensity and magnitude of coordinated intervention by the European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and Bank of England. “Most people had thought that the Fed would have backed off by now,” he says.

Although the Fed can’t lower rates much further, it can continue to buy Treasuries as the European Central Bank lowers rates. “We are buying 30-year [Treasury] bonds because we believe the yield curve will flatten,” he adds. Colonna’s fixed-income team doesn’t see any slowdown in bond demand, as baby boomers’ appetite for riskier assets fades.

“There is incredible demand for Treasuries globally,” he says. “The bid-to-cover ratios at auctions have been very strong. And the global pool of safe assets has been shrinking as downgrades spread. Plus, the Fed is still buying Treasuries during its various programs.” Thirty-year Treasuries currently yield 3%.

Colonna likes high-yield bonds, too, but he’s watching valuations closely and is prepared to trade them. In short, Colonna thinks 2012 will look a lot like 2011. The market will continue to trade in a broad range but with lots of volatility because of Europe. He’s ready to make quick changes in his portfolio.

NORTHERN TRUST, WHICH HAS $663 billion in assets under management, got several things right in 2011. For one, it provided downside protection in a tough market. For another, it correctly anticipated that U.S. equities would top their international counterparts, particularly in Europe and Japan, and it cut its overweighted position in emerging-markets equities back in March. Europe’s debt problems and inflation in emerging markets prompted the moves.

Still, it was a difficult year for this category, and the winner in Barron’s/Lipper’s mixed-equity category, which includes stocks, bonds and other assets, mostly benefited from its gold holdings. It was a buyer below $1,000 an ounce, says Bob Browne, chief investment officer. Gold ended the year at $1,564. That helped the Northern Global Tactical Asset Allocation Fund (BBALX) achieve a flat return, versus global stock-market declines of nearly 7%.

Another mixed entry, the Northern Income Equity Fund (NOIEX), overcame a poor convertible- bond market to beat the S&P 500 for the fourth year in a row. It was up 2.18% in 2011.

“This fund has always been some sort of mix between common stocks and convertible securities,” explains portfolio manager Jackie Benson, adding she has a pretty steady allocation of 57% in stocks, 6% in convertible preferreds, 31% in convertible bonds and about 6% in cash. Northern Income aims for equity-like returns with higher yields and less volatility. The convertible market was off 5% last year.

Among the convertible standouts for Benson last year were United Rentals (URI), which rents construction equipment, as well as a couple of converts in the managed-care space, Molina Healthcare (MOH) and Amerigroup (AGP). She’s cautious about the group because of a lack of activity: It’s very cheap for a company to issue debt these days. Right now, Benson like the convertibles of United and hair-salon chain Regis (RGS).

Although they don’t issue price forecasts, CIO Brown and his team like gold as a hedge against global calamities and high-yield bonds because investors will continue to seek income—so long as it comes at a reasonable risk.

E-mail:
editors@barrons.com

Por EZEQUIEL MINAYA

CARACAS (Dow Jones)–La economía venezolana creció un 4,9% en el cuarto trimestre frente al mismo período del año anterior, informó el jueves el banco central.

Las últimas cifras se traducen en que el producto interno bruto del país se expandió un 4,2% en 2011, un vuelco tras dos años de contracciones.

La actividad no ligada al petróleo se expandió un 5,1%, mientras que el sector petrolero del país creció un 1,8%, una mejora frente a la expansión del 0,3% registrado en el tercer trimestre.

De acuerdo con los datos del banco central, el sector de construcción contribuyó al crecimiento, con un alza del 12,8%. El sólido flujo de importaciones también jugó un papel importante, agregó la entidad.

By ROBERT GRESKOVIC

Charlie McCullers, Courtesy of Atlanta Ballet

Curdie (Jacob Bush) with Princess Irene (Alessa Rogers) in a scene from ‘Twyla Tharp’s “The Princess & the Goblin.

Atlanta

The bottom of the cast list in the house program for Atlanta Ballet’s world-premiere run of “Twyla Tharp’s ‘The Princess and the Goblin’” identified “Eleven Stolen Children.” By the time the curtain rang down on this intermission-free, 75-minute production at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center, it was quite clear that these young performers, students at the Atlanta Ballet Centre for Dance Education ranging in age from 8 to 15, had stolen the show. Their triumph was no mean feat, for while the story Ms. Tharp created in dance was not always easy to follow in narrative detail, it remained intriguing and moving.

Ms. Tharp, now 70 and a grandmother, has long been known for her iconoclastic works, which date back to 1965 and range from stark cerebral dances to grander ballet spectacles. Hers is hardly a name associated with ballets made with children in mind. Indeed the themes and elements of this narrative dance are unusual for Ms. Tharp. Her ballet is based on George MacDonald’s beautifully told 1872 tale about Irene, a steadfast princess who encounters the ghost of her loving great-great-grandmother (also named Irene) and, accompanied by her rustic friend Curdie, gets entangled with a population of fearsome goblins.

Ms. Tharp’s reduction and reworking of MacDonald’s story simplifies its twists, turns and adventures. Other than a succinct, scene-by-scene breakdown, Ms. Tharp’s program synopsis is but three sentences long. Richard Burke’s original music and his arrangements of Franz Schubert give this “Princess” a score carefully keyed to the action’s 12 scenes, plus prologue. It is a reliable, if not often an inspired, motor for the frequently eye-catching choreography.

Caleb Levengood’s scenic elements are spare but often evocative. Black, stepped platforms establish the story’s hilly terrain; various expanses of gossamer white fabric give the scenes a changeable sense of place and atmosphere. Dangling streamers suggest rain or foliage; similarly hung lengths of thick rope establish stalactites associated with underground caverns. Anne Armit’s costumes are also on the plain side, but less distinctive than Mr. Levengood’s work. The goblins of the title sport casual, ragtag outfits. King Papa and King of the Goblin, performed by the same dancer (rangy John Welker), are costumed similarly in gold-trimmed black jumpsuits and are missing the crowns one would expect as a sign of their stations. The upperworld Irene and otherworldly Great-Great-Grandmother Irene, and their attendant characters, wear natural-waisted dresses. Ms. Amit’s fussy, red cloaks for the capstone scene featuring mirror images of the two Irenes spinning in harmony distract from the moment’s two-as-one image.

More happily, the “stolen children”—a narrative element Ms. Tharp devised to give her take on MacDonald’s tale further dance opportunities—are outfitted winningly in togs that might be off the rack of a local boutique. All of this adds to the endless charm of their scampering and marching and delicately calibrated choreography, which threads the young dancers through the production as lively captives and, eventually, as members of the narrative’s intricate and marvelously arranged climax.

Feet and footwear figure in both MacDonald’s story and Ms. Tharp’s dance. Young Irene is the ballet’s central force, and Atlanta Ballet dancer Alessa Rogers’s impressively long, arched and pliant feet make the 24-year-old’s presence in the role extra vivid. The pointe shoes she acquires as a result of her contact with Great-Great-Grandmother Irene (a somewhat one-note Christine Winkler) lead her to rescue the kidnapped youngsters from the barefoot goblins. Finally, Irene returns everyone home, where she leads the rescued children and formerly fatuous adults into a realm of formally patterned harmony and soaring spirits. While Don Holder’s sensitive lighting enriches the stage pictures, it’s too bad it couldn’t somehow pinpoint and highlight the foot focus of Ms. Tharp’s dramatic action.

And then, again, there are the smaller feet of the boys and girls, mostly shod in knockabout sneakers. As Atlanta audiences noticed, 8-year-old Hanae Dillon’s little feet are memorable far beyond their size. The tiniest of the kidnapped children, Ms. Dillon became one of the ballet’s most memorable characters. With her mix-and-match patterned skirt, top and tights and her hair in two tufts, the pint-size girl projected art and life to the far reaches of the theater. All the while, she played her part and kept herself artfully in line for Ms. Tharp’s remarkably rigorous and yet free-seeming presentation of dancing children.

Elsewhere, 7-year-old Stella McFall, daughter of Atlanta Ballet’s artistic director, John McFall, made much of her role as one of Irene’s abducted sisters, also named Stella. Sophie Basarrate, 14, and Kevin Silverstein, 15, stood out to lead the rescued children with their finely presented, scrupulous dancing as two of the now-peaceful kingdom’s most upstanding individuals.

“Princess” was co-commissioned by Atlanta Ballet and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, where the work will next appear in October. Speaking recently to the Winnipeg Free Press, RWB artistic director André Lewis noted that Ms. Tharp will spend six weeks with the dancers ahead of the Canadian premiere. During that time, he suggested, the ballet will likely be revised. But if she can find student dancers as impressive as these Atlantans, my hunch is that Ms. Tharp won’t change a step of the children’s material.

Mr. Greskovic writes about dance for the Journal.

Por NICK CAWLEY

LONDRES (EFE Dow Jones)–La deuda estatal portuguesa continuaba el lunes con su impresionante evolución de los últimos tiempos y la rentabilidad del bono a 10 años caía hasta volver a los niveles de noviembre.

Los bonos estatales de otros países periféricos también se beneficiaban del tono positivo, con la rentabilidad de los italianos bajando ocho puntos básicos y la de los españoles reduciéndose en torno a cuatro puntos básicos.

La rentabilidad del bono luso a 10 años, el de referencia, bajaba en 20 puntos básicos al 11,78%, según datos de Tradeweb, sustancialmente por debajo del reciente máximo del 17,40% registrado a finales de enero debido al pánico. La rentabilidad del bono italiano a 10 años caía ocho puntos básicos al 5,49% y la del bono español a 10 años se dejaba cuatro puntos básicos al 5,22%.

La reciente mejora de los bonos estatales portugueses se ha visto alimentada por el creciente optimismo a que la crisis de deuda helena pueda solucionarse sin que el país tenga que abandonar la eurozona. El fin de semana, el Parlamento griego aprobó un paquete de recortes del gasto y los salarios, una condición que le había sido impuesta a cambio de un segundo paquete de rescate de 130.000 millones de euros.

Los bunds, considerados valores refugio, perdían parte de su atractivo y cedían algunas de sus ganancias del viernes. El contrato del bund a marzo cae 0,54 a 137,69.

By LESLIE SCISM

For years, teachers in Albany, Ga., invested in tax-advantaged savings programs known as 403(b)s just as many educators elsewhere do: Instead of getting a menu of stock funds or other investment choices from their employer, like those offered in corporate 401(k) plans, the teachers listened to pitches from insurance agents pushing their various companies’ programs.

Now, the district, Dougherty County School System, has done something that counts as revolutionary in this corner of the investing world: Over resistance from many commission-paid agents, administrators have created a single district 403(b) that is similar to a 401(k).

In 2010, they used competitive bidding to select an exclusive provider, a unit of American International Group Inc. Then, advisory firm Invest-N-U put together a menu of low-cost stock and bond funds, along with a retirement-income annuity.

“What we had was a multitude of vendors, maybe 13, and everyone was coming in saying, ‘Mine is the best,’ ” says Robert Lloyd, the district’s executive director of finance and operations. “My concern is to give our staff the best possible tools” to maximize retirement income, and narrowing investment options and cutting out agents was deemed the way to go, he says.

The move puts Dougherty County in the vanguard of what consultants say is a massive wave of change for 403(b)s.

Stirring the Pot

When 403(b) plans were introduced in the 1950s, federal law restricted participants to insurance products. Congress later authorized mutual funds, but annuities remained popular because insurance agents make sales calls at schools much more frequently than mutual-fund providers, a 2009 Government Accountability Office report found. Annuities typically include minimum-income guarantees or other downside protections, plus a death benefit. While these features are valued by many teachers, they make the products pricier than low-cost mutual funds and reduce upside potential.

Ray Bartkus

Most districts, meanwhile, have taken a hands-off approach; in essence, the 403(b)s in many places are akin to individual retirement accounts.

Much of the current change is being driven by Internal Revenue Service rules that began taking effect in 2009 and that give plan sponsors administrative and compliance responsibilities for employees’ 403(b) investments.

Change also is coming as growing numbers of teachers face cuts to their traditional pensions, giving them more incentive to sock away money in 403(b)s, consultants and school officials say.

With pension cutbacks, 403(b) plans are becoming a greater part of assets necessary to fund retirement and thus “need to be far more robust than, ‘Let’s have a bunch of insurance agents show up in the cafeteria’ ” to sell annuity contracts after school, says Kent Novell, principal at consulting firm Retirement Research Inc.

Some three million elementary- and secondary-school employees across the U.S. had about $109 billion in 403(b)s as of 2010, according to estimates from consulting firms. The 403(b) category also includes some nonprofit, governmental and religious organizations, as well as colleges, though many of these other employers already are running their plans like 401(k)s, consultants say.

Low-cost insurer and fund firm TIAA-CREF, which has long dominated the higher-education sector, sought to stir the pot of change in elementary and secondary schools with a report in late 2010 that concluded an educator in a 403(b) that screens providers to hold down fees can potentially accumulate tens of thousands of dollars more in retirement wealth over a career than a colleague in a plan that doesn’t screen and has high fees.

Insurance agents noted that TIAA-CREF has a vested interest in the matter: It would like to expand in the K-12 market.

To which Bruce Corcoran, a TIAA-CREF executive, responds: “TIAA-CREF’s interest in increasing access to lower-cost retirement-plan options is well-aligned with teachers and can help provide them with thousands and thousands of dollars of additional retirement savings.”

Agents Push Back

With thousands of school districts across the U.S. taking different approaches, it remains far from certain what kind of 403(b) will evolve as the standard, consultants say.

An average school district now has five to 10 providers seeking the business of its employees, down from 40 before the IRS rules took effect, according to Boston-based consulting firm Cerulli Associates.

Some of that reduction has taken place as districts band together and use their combined buying power to get lower prices in request-for-proposal processes that shrink the number of providers eligible to offer products to educators. In Michigan, for example, more than 200 districts formed a consortium that operates with a half-dozen “core” providers, each with its own menu of investment options.

Some statewide 403(b)s also are similarly stressing low costs, including one being set up in North Carolina.

But change isn’t always easy. Dougherty County’s conversion effort dragged out over three years, Mr. Lloyd says. Agents sent letters criticizing the concept to teachers and school-board members, and one agency hired a lawyer who questioned the process on multiple grounds, prompting the district to retrace some steps, according to Mr. Lloyd and public documents.

“You’ve got teachers trying to retire with a reasonable standard of living, and people, probably making a lot more money than they are, trying to push them into inferior products” to earn high commissions, Mr. Lloyd says.

Ken Love, an agent in Georgia for Life Insurance Co. of the Southwest, defends his role, saying “participation will drop without representatives educating employees on the need and importance of a 403(b) plan. Our mission is educating the educators on 403(b)s.”

In some states, longstanding laws are holding up change. In May, a senior official with the Los Angeles Unified School District asked California’s insurance commissioner to support revision of a law that essentially allows “any willing provider” to sell 403(b) investments there, according to The Wall Street Journal’s review of the official’s letter. The letter said that the plan’s oversight committee wanted to reduce the list of 27 vendors to “a more manageable number,” but that insurers had warned litigation “would likely ensue.”

A spokesman for the commissioner says the matter is among issues under consideration for the 2012 legislative calendar.

To be sure, not all school officials are in favor of limiting choice, saying teachers like the financial advice that commissions make possible. Some support an effort under way by the American Society for Pension Professionals and Actuaries and the National Education Association, among others, to create a model disclosure form to allow apples-to-apples comparisons of products’ costs and benefits.

In some cases, teachers say the changes are raising their costs instead of lowering them because the firms their districts hired to oversee the 403(b)s charge fees.

“I’m a big advocate of low fees, and the new regulations have caused an extra layer of fees,” says Richard Nichols, a high-school teacher in suburban Chicago. But he says he understands the need for strengthened monitoring of 403(b)s because “I do not think a lot of the other teachers search out the low-cost providers.”

Ms. Scism is a news editor for The Wall Street Journal in New York. She can be reached at leslie.scism@wsj.com.