Carolyn Clancy Fidelity Executive VP Fundsnetwork

Getting a new fund on Fidelity's platform, says a distribution exec at a large fund firm, has "gotten a little bit harder." He says that's partly due to Fidelity being "capacity constrained," in terms of how many funds they can work on adding at a time, and partly due to Fidelity looking at types of funds that are being added.

"The cost to actually add a fund is more transparent than ever," that exec says.

For medium and large-sized firms this might not be as big of a deal, but for small firms, it's a hit.

"This is very difficult for small fund firms ... We're evaluating other distribution avenues," says one owner of a small fund firm.

Yet the wirehouses and other B-Ds have been going through big platform lineup changes, too.

"Every platform looks like they're trying to clean up their CUSIPs" and lower the number they have to manage, one fundster distribution exec says. "Fidelity's going down that road, too."

"It isn't as draconian as the B-D side," says a national accounts exec at a large fund firm.

"We're talking really, really light rationalization."

"The trend is towards rationalization and platform consolidation," agrees a distro exec at a boutique.

"If it's important to you to have CUSIPs on" that would be dropped from the platform under the changes, says a national accounts exec at a Midwestern fund firm, "they will be charging for those."

"There's no performance hurdles," unlike B-Ds, clarifies an exec at a different Midwestern firm. "It's really more of a viability thing."