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Related Content: MGT604 - VU Lectures, Handouts, PPT Slides, Assignments, Quizzes, Papers & Books of Management of Financial Institutions

Mutual Funds

Cost of Ownership

1. Management Fee

All mutual funds, including no-load funds, have certain fixed expenses that are built into their per share net asset value. These expenses are the actual costs of doing business.

They are deducted from the assets of the fund. It is advisable to check the prospectus to determine the percentage of the fund's total net assets that is paid out for expenses.

Additionally, shareholder services provided by the fund, investment adviser's fees, bank custodian fees, and fund underwriter costs also come out of the fund's assets. These charges vary from fund to fund; however, they are clearly spelled out in the prospectus.

On a per-share basis, however, management expenses are usually quite small, because they are spread over the tens of thousands, or the millions, of shareholders in the fund.

The formula for determining the cost of a fund's management expenses is simple: From the current value of the fund's total assets subtract liabilities and expenses, and divide the result by the number of outstanding shares. The fund's prospectus and /or annual reports often provide this data. Management fees and expenses are usually expressed as a ratio of expenses paid out to total assets. Generally, the prospectus will show these expense ratios.

Read more: MGT604 - Management of Financial Institutions - Lecture Handout 25

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Related Content: MGT604 - VU Lectures, Handouts, PPT Slides, Assignments, Quizzes, Papers & Books of Management of Financial Institutions

Mutual Funds

Balanced Funds

The basic objectives of balanced funds are to generate income as well as long-term growth of principal. These funds generally have portfolios consisting of bonds, preferred stocks, and common stocks. They have fairly limited price rise potential, but do have a high degree of safety, and moderate to high income potential.

Investors who desire a fund with a combination of securities in a single portfolio, and who seek some current income and moderate growth with low-level risk, would do well to invest in balanced mutual funds. Balanced funds, by and large, do not differ greatly from the growth and income funds described above.

Growth Funds

Growth funds are offered by every investment company. The primary objective of such funds is to seek long-term appreciation (growth of capital). The secondary objective is to make one's capital investment grow faster than the rate of inflation. Dividend income is considered an incidental objective of growth funds.

Growth funds are best suited for investors interested primarily in seeing their principal grow and are therefore to be considered as long-term investments - held for at least three to five years. Jumping in and out of growth funds tends to defeat their purpose. However, if the fund has not shown substantial growth over a three - to five-year period, sell it (redeem your shares) and seek a growth fund with another investment company. Candidates likely to participate in growth funds are those willing to accept moderate to high risk in order to attain growth of their capital and those investors who characterize their investment temperament as "fairly aggressive.

Read more: MGT604 - Management of Financial Institutions - Lecture Handout 24