The Costs of Investing

Text of sound bite:

"The paper shows a substantial decrease in mutual fund equity total cost from 1980 to today, dropping from about 2.25 percent a year to 1.49 percent a year. Investors are smart and they have moved over time from higher cost funds to lower costs. Secondly, fund groups have substantially reduced their distribution fees. We did the same analysis for bond funds and money market funds which show similar declines. The cost of bond funds annually has dropped 25 percent, the cost of money market funds has dropped 15 percent."

New York media briefing, February 16, 1999