Management fees eat your returns

Article Excerpt

Investors are increasingly concerned about the high fees charged by many mutual fund managers, and rightly so: studies suggest that the average U.S. large-cap mutual fund underperformed the S&P 500 index by about 1.6% per year over the past 20 years. The Canadian market likely mirrors that. A 1.6% underperformance per year may not sound like much, but fees wear away at investment outcomes. Consider the investment returns of a mutual fund that charges a management fee of 1.1% per year compared to a low-cost ETF alternative charging 0.1%. Assume a starting value of $250,000 for both investments and an equal return of 9.6% per year. Over a 30-year period the final value of the mutual fund is $796,400, or 21.8% less than the return for the low-cost ETF. Some mutual fund managers do very well by outperforming their benchmarks after costs. But this is the exception and most investors can’t afford to overlook the impact of higher costs. costs…