The basic question that this article addresses is: Why does mutual fund advertising work? The summation of external evidence is compatible with evidence that greater mutual fund advertising attracts investors with below-average financial literacy who find the investment decision process...

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 it is they value in choice of funds. And, fund advisers learned early on to provide what...

For investor and institutional class index mutual funds that track the S&P 500 Index, there are just 25 funds with statistically low expense ratios (management fee findings are found above). However, there are only five index funds — all investor class — with statistically very high and...

The stated and objective empirical findings in this study (and others) are generally consistent. There is no evidence that mutual fund shareholders benefit from Rule 12b-1 plans, which provide a serious conflict of interest.The promise that 12b-1 fees would be used to increase mutual fund assets...

We analyze the expense ratio and attributes affecting the performance of 136 retail S&P 500 Index funds. These funds are among the simplest of financial vehicles. Nonetheless, the expense ratios and performance of these benchmark trackers differ significantly.Our univariate analysis shows that...

This chapter provides an in-depth discussion of important issues related to mutual fund distribution. Two major topics are fund distribution channel characteristics and Rule 12b-1 fees and distribution. Distribution channel characteristics discussed include direct channel, advice channel,...