With the advent of exchange-traded funds, the structure for pooled accounts changed.

FORBES: Dividends Are Stuck In SPDR's Web

To encourage co-operation he has pooled the accounts of the agency's biggest divisions, advertising and direct marketing.

ECONOMIST: Advertising

And professionals who manage money in pooled pension funds usually get higher returns than workers who manage their own 401(k) accounts.

FORBES: Why Defined-Benefit Plans Are Safer Investments for State Governments and Workers

The documents that have been disclosed reveal that some bishops in the bankrupt dioceses presented the diocesan funds of parishes, schools, hospitals and retirement accounts as separate when they were really simply book-keeping entries in the same pooled investment account.

ECONOMIST: The Catholic church in America