How Mutual Fund Expense Ratios Work

Learn how expense ratios can affect the return on your investments

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When you buy a mutual fund, the fund is buying and selling its underlying investments for you, which causes it to incur expenses. The fund passes along part of these costs to you as an expense ratio. Learn more about this cost to help maximize your mutual fund returns.

What Is a Mutual Fund Expense Ratio?

An expense ratio measures the operational costs of a mutual fund, relative to the fund's average net assets. You will often see it stated in terms of the percentage of the fund's assets that is taken out of the fund each year to cover its costs.

You will also see expense ratios expressed in units known as "basis points." One basis point is equal to .01%. Here are a few examples that you can use as a guide for how to interpret expense ratios:

  • A fund that has an expense ratio of .20% costs the equivalent of 0.002 of the amount you have invested.
  • A fund with an expense ratio of 1.10% each year costs 0.011 of the total assets you have in the fund.
  • A fund that charges 30 basis points charges .30%, or 0.003 of the amount you have invested per year.

Expense ratio fees are not taken from your account. Instead, they are deducted from the total assets of the fund before you get your share. Suppose that the investments owned by your mutual fund deliver an annual return of 10%. If the fund has an expense ratio of 1%, your actual return, less fees, is 9%.

Expense ratios represent a cost for shareholders for holding a mutual fund. The lower the expense ratio, the better. You get to keep more of the fund's returns each year. The result is a higher investment value at the end of the investment holding period.

Average Expense Ratios

Operational expenses for mutual funds depend on the level of management needed for the fund and the securities in which they are invested. According to the mutual fund research firm Morningstar, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds had an average expense ratio of 0.45% in 2019.

Mutual funds may follow an active or passive management philosophy. Actively managed funds spend money on research and trading. They try to pick the best set of investments within the category they focus on. Because of the extra work involved, they have higher expenses.

Passive funds, by contrast, own a pre-determined selection of investments. They have much lower expenses. Morningstar found that actively managed funds had a higher average expense ratio of 0.66%. Passively managed funds had a lower expense ratio of 0.13% on average.

Funds that own international investments tend to have higher expense ratios than funds that own large U.S. companies, because it takes more expertise and research to trade in overseas investments.

When comparing expense ratios, it is best to compare funds that own similar types of investments. It would not be useful to compare the expense ratio of an emerging-market fund to that of a U.S large-cap fund. However, it would make sense to compare the expense ratios of two emerging-market funds.

Note

Don't fall for the myth that funds with higher expense ratios perform better over time than low-cost funds. The truth is that passive funds with lower fees often outperform active funds with higher fees.

Finding a Mutual Fund’s Expense Ratio

While looking at average expense ratios can be helpful, the only way to get an accurate account of the operational expenses associated with a fund is to look it up. There are three ways to find out the expense ratio of any mutual fund:

1. Locate It on the Brokerage Company Website

For instance, suppose you want to find out the expense ratio of Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares. Visit Vanguard's website for personal investors. In the search box at the top of the page, start typing the fund name. The right fund should appear in the results. Clicking the result takes you to a page with a fund summary, which notes the expense ratio (0.04%).

2. Look It Up Using the Fund’s Ticker Symbol

A mutual fund's ticker symbol is a series of five letters. For instance, Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares has a ticker symbol of VFIAX. If you search for the symbol on Google, you should see a market summary at the top of the search results page. It will tell you the fund's expense ratio.

3. Find It in the Fund’s Prospectus

This brochure that provides information about the fund is mailed or emailed to investors each year. You can download a fund’s prospectus from the mutual fund company’s website. Look in the table of contents for a section relating to fees and expenses to learn the expense ratio of the fund.

Some fund prospectuses include two expense ratios: a gross expense ratio and a net expense ratio. The gross expense ratio amounts to all expenses associated with a fund, relative to the fund's assets, including operating expenses, interest expenses, and other management fees. The net expense ratio represents fees collected after fee waivers and reimbursements. In other words, the net expense ratio is what you actually pay to hold a fund.

Figuring Expense Ratio Fees

You don't directly pay the fee incurred from an expense ratio. Figuring out how much of your investment would be eaten by operational expenses every year helps you pick mutual funds that will increase your returns over time.

To calculate expense ratio fees, multiply the expense ratio as a decimal by the value of your investment. For instance, if you select a fund with an expense ratio of 0.65%, you will annually be charged $65 in fees for every $10,000 you invest in the fund.

If you pick a fund with a 0.15% expense ratio, you will only pay the equivalent of $15 for every $10,000 you invest in the fund. Choosing the lower-fee fund can save you $50 per $10,000 invested. While such savings may seem small, relative to the total value of your portfolio, they can add up over a long period.

The Bottom Line

Many investors pay too much for their investments without knowing it. Fees arising from expense ratios represent a cost to shareholders that has the effect of reducing the return on investment. That is why an investor who wants to maximize his returns should seek out mutual funds with below-average expense ratios. For instance, if you can find a quality mutual fund with an expense ratio that is about 0.50% less than what you currently pay, on $100,000 that would save about $500 a year. Over 10 years, you would realize $5,000 in savings.

Keep in mind that operational expenses aren't the only fee that can eat into your returns. When comparing mutual funds, also consider how any taxes imposed at the time of withdrawal would affect your return on investment. That way, you can get a sense of the real return of any mutual fund on the market.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How are expense ratios charged?

Mutual fund expense fees are typically charged through taking a chunk out of some combination of dividends and capital gains. Some funds will have more dividends than capital gains or vice versa. Wherever the fund's profits come from, that's where the fees will be deducted from. If there aren't any profits, then the fees will be deducted from the holdings.

What are the average expense ratios for a money market fund?

Money market funds charge expense ratios similar to those of passive funds. Most fund fees will be well under 1%, and some may even be below 0.2%. You can use a mutual fund screener to sort through your brokerage's money market options by expense fee.

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Sources
The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. Morningstar. "Morningstar's Annual Fund Fee Study Finds Investors Saved Nearly $6 Billion in Fund Fees in 2019."

  2. Vanguard. "Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares (VFIAX)."

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