All mutual funds have investment-related expenses. These expenses include the costs for producing account statements, record keeping, legal services, printing and mailing of all regulatory documents, including shareholder reports. To pay for these expenses, all mutual funds charge fees to their shareholders. Mutual fund fees also cover the costs of a fund's annual operating expenses, including a marketing and distribution fee and a management fee (which is paid to the fund's investment advisor for managing the fund). To find out more about a fund's fees,
check out the fee table in the fund's prospectus. This table lists in detail the expenses covered by the fund's fees. Also included in this section is a hypothetical illustration on the effect of expenses on a $10,000 investment. All fund companies are required to use the same assumptions for this example. This way, it's easier for investors to compare the fees of different funds.