June 15, 2006
For an industry that is largely self-serving, it is tantamount that fund investors have direct and independent representation on a fund's board. Further, the independent candidates for boards should be competitively installed by the majority of votes of the share holders regardless of any cost issue. Once instituted, the actual expenditures of the fund could be more closely monitored by representatives of the shareholders to justify the current operating costs and any increases. I suspect that the operating expenses of many of the funds will actually decrease with better management control, especially for those finds with operating expenses in excess of 2%.