What differences in buying a no load mutual fund through an online broker vs. buying directly from the fund?
buzzzkiller asked:
For example: there are broker buying and selling charges, but one can buy and sell at a specified price from a broker.
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For example: there are broker buying and selling charges, but one can buy and sell at a specified price from a broker.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:22 am
There should be no differences to you. Any fees paid to the broker are paid by the mutual fund. (The fee is usually about 35 basis points.) zeuz
January 20th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
The broker will charge you transaction fees to buy and redeem shares. jlf
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:36 pm
If it is an open end mutual fund, you can not exactly sell or buy at a specified price. You have to buy and sell at what the closing net asset price is. Some open end mutual funds are actually sold through brokers with no fees. Others are not. Those that are not are better purchased through the mutual fund company itself. Some on line brokers charge a rather substantial fee to buy certain mutual funds through them, as high as $50 per transaction. On the other hand ETFs can be purchased only through a broker. muncie birder
January 24th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Many brokers have no transaction fees for many mutual funds, but may may have varying minimum holding periods from 30 days to 6 months, depending upon whether it is one of their own funds or an outside fund, or depending whether you are selling it or exchanging for fund from same fund family. In some cases minimum initial investment or minimum added investment may differ based on who you buy it from or type of account.
It depends whether you want to keep it in a tax sheltered account (IRA or Roth IRA) which often has lower amounts required for initial and added investment.
Or it depends whether you want a bunch of scattered accounts, or in an account where you can sell it one day and buy something totally different with that money the next day. efflandt
January 26th, 2010 at 10:00 am
The broker pretty well always charges a commission. They may charge the commission to you or they may charge the commission to the mutual fund company. If the mutual fund company pays the commission, they have to raise the money by increasing the mutual fund expenses, so you end up paying for it indirectly. I like Vanguard mutual funds because of their low expenses and good track record. However, many brokers won’t sell Vanguard products because Vanguard won’t pay them commission fees. Gobbler