Fee disclosures

Some 225 funds traded for the first time over the past 12 months, down for a second-straight year.

Investors are pulling money at an accelerated pace as high fees and mediocre returns send them searching for yield elsewhere.

Now, armed with data from the rule’s rollout in Europe, asset managers in the U.S. have a better sense of each analysts’ worth — fairly or not.

While these 20 dizzying changes will throw some for a loop, financial advisors and their clients grow more powerful each year.

Fund industry Darwinism should be seen as healthy and natural in a thriving — albeit brutal — market, an expert says.

The fact that it’s impossible to track the amount of revenue sharing kickbacks demonstrates the problem, says the research firm’s lead policy wonk.

The changes follow the firm’s recent move to cut some client fees on separately managed accounts.

It's no exaggeration to say rock-bottom fees are an existential threat to many asset managers. However, technology could still save the day.

With tens of thousands of certificants affiliated with giant BDs, the documents required by the new standards are making their conflicts of interest plain as day.

Jason Wenk, founder of Altruist, is ramping up for an end-of-year debut.

The regulator’s expanding number of share-class cases fill in the details it says have been missing from Form ADV disclosures about conflicts of interest.

In a little-noticed rule change, mutual funds no longer disclose their shrinking BD commission load-sharing payments.

Since this March, almost 100 firms have settled with the regulator for approximately $173 million. Other cases are still pending.

More than 70% of U.S. ETF assets are in funds that charge 2 basis points or less, data show. But free isn’t an automatic ticket to success.

The indexing giant’s pilot Digital Advisor will be priced at 15 basis points, but allocate client assets almost entirely in proprietary funds.

Alternative compensation structures may provide more consumer protection, and drive higher client satisfaction.

The SEC’s 564-page rule shows the new disclosure could prove time-consuming, even vexing, for firms.

The transition is expected to take place within the next 12 to 18 months, however the firm says it will still manage the products’ underlying investments.

The firm’s complicated relationship with these fees is indicative of the industry’s overall struggle to find a balance between appropriate compensation and transparency.

An unprecedented 58 funds were closed in the six months through June, marking the industry’s worst-ever start to a year.