Andrew Shilling

The Boston-based boutique oversees the assets of roughly 140 full- service clients and 800 individual households.

In two recent moves, the firm promoted one of its own to regional director and lured another back from AllianceBernstein.

The advisors know RBC’s Pittsburgh complex director from earlier in their careers, when all three men worked at Smith Barney.

The 20 mutual funds and ETFs on this list have an average fee of roughly 111 basis points.

The top 20 have delivered overall outperformance. However, their gains come with fees more than twice the industry average.

The addition for Venture Visionary Partners grows its staff to 28 and total AUM to $3.7 billion.

The average expense ratio for this group was more than 100 basis points.

“Their top holdings are focused on those companies that have benefited in a post-COVID world,” an expert says.

Fees among the leaders range from as little as two basis points to as high as 125 basis points.

The former wirehouse advisors specialize in financial strategies for high-net-worth clients, families and businesses.

“These are tracking the industries that are supporting the economy and will continue in the post-pandemic world,” an expert says.

Among the decade’s worst performers — those with more than $1 billion in assets under management — were a handful of products with stellar short-term returns.

The decade’s top-performers have produced returns of more than four-times their industry peers this year.

“Investors are going into lower, more passive mutual funds because they don't want to pay the fees,” an expert says.

“Expense ratios matter to most people, particularly when you're looking at these mostly passive funds,” an expert says.

Despite some impressive short-term gains, more than half underperformed their peers over the decade.

Some of the biggest laggards have managed short-term gains of more than 40%.

More than half of these funds have fees higher than 75 basis points.

From regulations to taxes, big changes could be in the offing.

Fees for the category's best performing mutual funds and ETFs are much like the price of bullion: expensive.