April 12, 2004
Your Mutual Fund reform has three parts as I understand it:
1 ....Disclosure
2 ....Conflicts
3 ... Value of 12b-1 fees
My comments regard the value of 12b-1 fees. In a free market, the consumer should decide whether he wants a no-load/no-help mutual fund there are thousands to choose from. If a mutual fund investor wants professional help,
then that is what sales loads and 12b-1 fees provide. My
clients ask me for help with financial decisions in hundreds of areas . . . not just which fund to choose. The
12b-1 fee provides them access to me as a professional financial consultant. Thomas Paine in 1775 wrote Common Sense, probably the best book on how free market economies
work ever written. Allow the free market to work and let the consumer choose.