(MONEY Magazine) – Yet another fund company has decided it needs the help of salesmen after all. Strong Funds plans to convert several of its portfolios into load funds on Nov. 30. Soon you'll have to pay a commission--Strong hasn't said yet how much--to get into Equity Income, Mid Cap Growth, Small Cap Value, Bond or Short-Term Global Bond. (Shareholders in the funds before the deadline on the 30th won't have to pay the extra toll.) Strong is also launching three brand-new load offerings and has reopened Common Stock, run by star manager Dick Weiss, to new investors, who will pay a load.

Strong is just the latest no-load house to step up its efforts to sell through brokerages. The mutual fund industry got big fast in the 1990s; now asset growth is harder for companies to come by, so they're trying to grab investors' attention any and every way they can. Even top-selling Janus now offers so-called adviser funds with an extra 0.25% annual fee. T. Rowe Price this year added a similar charge to 10 funds if they are sold through a broker. And Merrill Lynch recently rolled its no-load Hotchkis & Wiley funds into its loaded Mercury brand.

--I.P.