Pays for:
Your membership in the fund. It may be a dollar amount each year (regardless of the amount invested), a percentage of the assets invested or a mixture of both.
Also known as:
Membership fee, account charge, application fee, policy fee, monitoring fee.
Cost:
$60 to $200 a year; or 0.5% to 1.5% a year of assets.
Tips:
If investing a lump sum of less than $10,000 or a regular amount of less than $2,000 a year, check out the rates for a term deposit at your bank. These may be competitive when compared to an investment product and its fees. You could think about putting the money into the product once you have built up a reasonable amount.