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Load is defined as the fee or the commission that an investor pays to a mutual fund at the time of purchasing or redeeming the shares of the mutual fund.

If the commission is charged when the investor buys the shares, it is known as a front-end load. On the other hand if the commission is charged when the investors redeems his shares, it is known as a back-end load.

Certain funds apply back-end loads only if the shares are redeemed within a specific time period after being bought.

The argument for applying loads on mutual fund transactions is that these loads will discourage investors from trading frequently in mutual funds. If the investors quickly move in and out of mutual funds, the funds have to maintain a high cash position to meet these redemptions, which in turn decreases the returns of the funds.
Also frequent trading means the expenses of the mutual funds go up.

There are various arguments against load funds:

-The fees that the mutual funds collect as loads are passed on to the fund brokers. The loads do not provide any incentive for the fund manager for better performance of the funds. In other words, a load fund has no reason why its managers should perform better than those of no-load funds.

-In the last few decades, no difference has been seen in the returns of load and no-load funds (if the loads are not considered.) When the loads are considered, the investors of load funds have actually gained less than the investors of no-load funds.
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Copyright 2006 Michael Saville

Paying a load is akin to throwing away most or all of the supposed advantage you get from having a salesman choose a fund for you. If it’s true that asset allocation accounts for 95 percent of investment results over long periods of time, then only 5 percent is left over as a reward for having the “right” fund and the “right” manager. But even if a salesman could help you pick that “right” fund, paying him a commission of 5 percent wipes out the benefit.

When you pay a 5 percent load you lose the opportunity to invest 5 percent of your money forever. When you buy a load fund, the money that goes to the salesman goes to work for him, not for you. When you invest in a no-load fund, all your money goes to work for you.

And load percentages are always higher than the quoted figures. For example in a $10,000 investment if $500 goes to the sales organization then $9,500 is invested on your behalf. Funds are allowed to call this a 5 percent commission. In fact, you invested only $9,500, and the $500 load amounts to a commission not of 5 percent but of 5.26 percent on your real investment.

Load amounts are higher than they look. The effect of your commission grows over time. If you avoided a $1,000 commission by investing in a no-load fund, over 25 years you would wind up with nearly $11,000 more if your money compounded at 10 percent. In other words, the $1,000 load would, in effect, be an $11,000 load.

The broker who chooses a fund for you may have a reason to prefer that you buy a poorer-performing fund instead of a top-performing one. Studies show that funds operated by brokerage houses (naturally, they are almost exclusively load funds) have poorer average performance than independent load funds. Yet a broker often earns exotic trips and other perks, in addition to a higher percentage of the commission, for selling house funds. So if you buy a load fund from a broker, at least insist on getting one that is not managed by that brokerage house. You’ll then get more objective guidance-and hopefully better performance.
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Copyright 2006 Michael Saville

No load mutual funds are mutual funds whose shares are sold without a commission or sales charge. The reason for this is that the shares are distributed directly by the investment company, instead of going through a secondary party. This is the opposite of a load fund, which charges a commission upon the initial purchase at the time of sale.

Since there is no cost for you to enter a no-load fund, all of your money is working for you. If you purchase $10,000 worth of a no-load mutual fund, all $10,000 will be invested into the fund. On the other hand, if you buy a load fund that charges a commission of 5% upon purchase, the amount actually invested in the fund is $9,500. If both funds return 10%, the no-load fund would have grown to $11,000 while the loaded fund only rose to $10,450.

The major idea behind a load fund is that you will make up what you paid in commissions with the solid returns that the managers will provide. However, most studies show that loads don’t outperform no-loads.

Most load mutual funds are sold through brokerage houses, financial planners, and people known as “Registered Representatives.” With very few exceptions, most of these people operate on the basis of selling as many fund shares as possible. Their commissions are collected up front, as a back end charge, or both. Whether you make money or lose it isn’t their primary concern. What matters most to these folks is how often you buy (and generate new commissions for them).

No load funds have traditionally been marketed directly by the mutual fund companies themselves. But today, more and more funds are being offered through discount houses like Fidelity, Schwab, and a host of others. The advantage to this is that you have an unlimited choice of mutual funds in one place. You don’t have to open a separate account for each mutual fund family that you purchase.

Most fee based investment advisors have independent relationships with the major discount firms. They’re able to offer clients just about any no load mutual fund that is available. They receive no commissions from the firm and only get paid by the client according to a pre-determined fee arrangement. Under this type of arrangement, there’s no hidden agenda to try to sell you a particular mutual fund in order to earn a larger commission.

It is best to stick with no-load or low-load funds, but they are becoming more difficult to distinguish from heavily loaded funds. The use of high front-end loads has declined, and funds are now turning to other kinds of charges. Some mutual funds sold by brokerage firms, for example, have lowered their front-end loads to 5%, and others have introduced back-end loads (deferred sales charges), which are sales commissions paid when exiting the fund. In both instances, the load is often accompanied by annual charges.
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Copyright 2006 Michael Saville

Loads are the most talked about fees that mutual funds charge. A “load” on a mutual fund is just another way of saying that the fund charges a sales commission for purchase, sale, or both. There are funds that charge loads and there are funds that do not charge loads (known as “load funds” and “no load funds” respectively).

Front-end loads are sales commissions that are paid up front at the time of your purchase. So, if you give a fund a $10,000 investment and it charges a front-end load of 5%, then the fund will take 5% of your investment (that’s $500) and pocket it right away. Only what is left over after the load has been deducted will be invested into the fund (in this example, only $9,500 is invested in the fund from your initial $10,000 investment)

Back-end loads charge their sales commissions when you sell (or “redeem”) your shares. So, when you go to redeem your shares in a fund with a back-end load you will end up receiving whatever money the shares are worth minus the sales commission.

Mutual funds charge management fees in order to pay for the management services used to run the fund. In other words, these fees are used to pay the salaries of the fund’s managers and analysts. Management fees usually do not amount to more than one percent of the fund’s assets, and they are significantly lower for passively-managed funds, such as index funds, than for actively-managed ones. You should remember that a high management fee in no way guarantees a more skilful management team.
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