“Fees and expenses are an important consideration in selecting a mutual fund because these charges lower your returns.”

One of the common complaints from fund investors is that they don’t understand the different types of mutual fund fees.  And they are often surprised how fees can substantially lower their returns on fund investments.

This article provides basic information on fund fees and how they lower returns.  It also provides a link to the FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer.  By entering a fund’s ticker symbol, you can compare fees and performance for different funds.  And if you don’t know the fund’s ticker symbol, you can also search by using the fund name or key words.

For more information go to http://www.sec.gov/investor/tools/mfcc/mfcc-int.htm

Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the information in this blog post and the original article to

• Stress how fees and charges lower an investor’s return on a fund investment.
• Illustrate how to use FINRA’s Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer.

Discussion Questions

1. Why should load charges, management fees, and other charges be considered when evaluating a mutual fund?
2. Use FINRA’s Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer to evaluate the Fidelity Small Cap Growth Fund (Symbol – FCPGX) and the Vanguard 500 Index Fund (Symbol – VFINX). Which fund had the highest fees and sales charges?  Which fund had the highest return over the 10-year period?  Note:  You will need to access the Mutual Fund Expense Analyzer through the SEC link at  http://www.sec.gov/investor/tools/mfcc/mfcc-int.htm.