This article provides in-depth discussion of important issues related to mutual fund distribution. The first two topics are fund distribution channel characteristics and Rule 12b-1 fees and distribution. Distribution channel characteristics discuss direct channel, advice channel, retirement...

The purpose of this study is to discuss research that identifies heterogeneous mutual fund and investor attributes and relations that explain dispersion in fund fees. One might think there is a short list of attributes and relations, such as high versus low expense ratios, that tells the full...

Baker and Wurgler [2007] take a “top down” approach to behavioral finance and the stock market. Investor sentiment is taken to be exogenous and the focus is on its empirical effects. Sentiment is measurable and its waves have clearly discernible, important, and regular effects on firms and...

Financial literacy has become a major area of research in recent years, both in the investment and retirement literature with respect to the increasing complexity of financial products and need to save for retirement. Studies generally find individuals are financially uninformed and lacking in...

First, this study reviews Morningstar analytical grading measures used by investors to choose mutual funds. These measures include Morningstar star ratings, analyst ratings, total pillar ratings, upside and downside capture ratios, and stewardship ratings. Second, the study provides results of...

Since the 2003 mutual funds scandal, it has become quite clear that thoughtful, long-term individual investors should focus on identifying and investing in stewardship funds. The purpose of this study is to provide readily available approaches for individual investors to use in the...

The purposes of this study are to review how mutual fund portfolio manager structures and their attributes, and implications impact fund risk and return performance. For example, retail Investors in actively managed mutual funds are often characterized as "dumb investors chasing past...

This study presents the construct of a New Total Expense Ratio built upon the concept of normative transparency of disclosure. This construct presents the reality of adviser/distributor payments to brokers “behind the mutual fund curtain.” The source of these payments is fund and shareholder...

Barber, Odean, and Zheng's [2005] analysis of mutual fund front-end loads, sales commissions, and operating expenses finds that over the past several decades ordinary investors have “learned” what they value in choice of funds. And, fund advisers learned early on to provide what attracts...

The 2003 mutual funds scandal that exploded upon the public revealed something that had long been known to insiders: Mutual fund advisers often approve and allow frequent trading, frequent trading arbitrage, and late trading arbitrage to selected traders. To increase adviser profits, fund...