Over at Fundalarm.com, mutual fund muckraker Roy Weitz raked some interesting muck recently.

He pointed out that the "Preferred Group of Mutual Funds" has "some affiliation" with Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT). See for yourself -- pop over to the Preferred Group website for a second (and don't forget to come back!). See a little hint of the connection? Well, it turns out that the Preferred Group has been run by a subsidiary of Caterpillar (though the actual management of most funds was farmed out to other managers). What's more, until recently, the lion's share of the fund families' funds were owned by the construction machinery company's retirement plans. As Weitz noted, "Caterpillar plans own at least 92% of two Preferred funds, at least 75% of five funds, and at least 25% of the remaining three funds."

That's problematic, because if the company decides to take its money elsewhere, the remaining, non-company-affiliated shareholders will be left with a severely deflated fund, running on much less money than it used to. And sadly for these folks, that's just what's happening -- Caterpillar is pulling its money out. (A note on the Preferred Group website explains that management will be trying to minimize the hit that remaining shareholders will be taking.)

Is this a unique situation? Not exactly. As Weitz reported, "Last year, when the Boeing (NYSE:BA) 401(k) plan bailed out of Invesco Technology and took almost half of the fund's assets with it, we wondered why huge ownership positions (like Caterpillar's) aren't routinely disclosed up front in the risk section of the prospectus. ... Clearly, if one entity (such as a retirement plan) owns more than 90% of your mutual fund, that's an investment risk, and you should be able to read about it along with all the other investment risks."

Well said, Mr. Weitz! Regulators and others out there, if you're looking for another way to make the mutual fund world more transparent and fairer to us investors, this is a problem worth addressing. Fool investors -- remember that we, too, can speak up to let our fund families know of our concerns. Perhaps can let our friends at the Securities and Exchange Commission know, too.

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Longtime Fool contributor Selena Maranjian does not own shares of any companies mentioned in this article.