No Load Mutual Funds

It is best to stick with no-load or low-load funds, but they are becoming more difficult to distinguish from heavily loaded funds. The use of high front-end loads has declined, and funds are now turning to other kinds of charges. Some mutual funds sold by brokerage firms, for example, have lowered their front-end loads to 5%, and others have introduced back-end loads (deferred sales charges), which are sales commissions paid when exiting the fund. In both instances, the load is often accompanied by annual charges. 

On the other hand, some no-load funds have found that to compete, they must market themselves much more aggressively. To do so, they have introduced charges of their own. 

The result has been the introduction of low loads, redemption fees, and annual charges. Low loads–up to 3%–are sometimes added instead of the annual charges. In addition, some funds have instituted a charge for investing or withdrawing money. 

Redemption fees work like back-end loads: You pay a percentage of the value of your fund when you get out. Loads are on the amount you have invested, while redemption fees are calculated against the value of your fund assets. Some funds have sliding scale redemption fees, so that the longer you remain invested, the lower the charge when you leave. Some funds use redemption fees to discourage short-term trading, a policy that is designed to protect longer-term investors. These funds usually have redemption fees that disappear after six months. 

Probably the most confusing charge is the annual charge, the 12b-1 plan. The adoption of a 12b-1 plan by a fund permits the adviser to use fund assets to pay for distribution costs, including advertising, distribution of fund literature such as prospectuses and annual reports, and sales commissions paid to brokers. Some funds use 12b-1 plans as masked load charges: They levy very high rates on the fund and use the money to pay brokers to sell the fund. Since the charge is annual and based on the value of the investment, this can result in a total cost to a long-term investor that exceeds a high up-front sales load. A fee table is required in all prospectuses to clarify the impact of a 12b-1 plan and other charges. 

The fee table makes the comparison of total expenses among funds easier. Selecting a fund based solely on expenses, including loads and charges, will not give you optimal results, but avoiding funds with high expenses and unnecessary charges is important for long-term performance. 

Front loads can be reduced if you are investing or planning to invest a certain amount of money. The load reduction schedules are called “break-points.” For example, with most fund companies if you are investing over $100,000 or plan to within the next 13 months, you will get a 1% reduction on the front load. The more you invest, the greater the reduction in the load. For some fund companies the break-point reduction begins at $50,000 over 13 months, and with many funds, if you invest over $2 million there is no front load.   

If you do not have $50,000 or $100,000 to invest over the next 13 months, you can still earn a reduction on the front load, through “rights of accumulation.” Under accumulation rules you will receive fee reductions on the front load when your total investments with one fund family have grown past the break points. Therefore, if you only have $20,000 to invest today, that’s OK, someday soon it will grow past the $50,000 or $100,000 initial break-point and you will be eligible for the load discount on your further investments.   

  The turnover ratio for a mutual fund can provide you with useful information about how expensive a fund is and how it is managed. Turnover ratios measure the amount of trading activity in the fund’s portfolio. They are calculated by taking all of the fund’s sales for a specified period of time (usually one year) and dividing by the fund’s total assets. This number tells you how much the fund’s portfolio has changed. 

  You probably will want to exercise caution when investing in a fund with a high turnover ratio. High turnover means that the fund’s manager is buying and selling very often, and, since every sale and every purchase involves a commission, this means that funds with high turnover ratios often have high expenses. Some experts recommend focusing on funds whose turnover ratio is less than 50%.