Best No Load Funds? Vanguard, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity

No load mutual funds are funds that can be purchased without any commission. Such mutual funds are usually available with banks, some of the insurance companies, trust companies and some independent fund companies. The best way to figure out the best no load funds is to evaluate and analyze the mutual fund fees and expenses associated with a particular mutual fund.

There is a tendency among investors to select mutual funds based solely on fees and expense ratios. The logic behind doing so is that by choosing mutual funds with low fees, investors can have more of their capital invested. It is also observed that no load mutual funds are likely to pass on more of the returns they earn to their shareholders. Experts believe that choosing a mutual fund solely based on expense ratios and lowest fees is not the right away to determine the best no load funds. The key to this problem depends on the type of mutual fund you are evaluating, the time you can devote to evaluating and managing your mutual funds investments, and the type of cost incurred.

If the customer is on the lookout for the best index mutual fund it is always better to find a no load index mutual fund with low fees and expenses. If the customer believes in the active management of investments the ability and investing style of the portfolio manager is of crucial importance. It is also important to understand that those mutual funds which impose fees to contain operating expenses and return fees to the mutual fund helps protect the interests of long-term shareholders.

All the three companies Vanguard, T.Rowe Price and Fidelity have a range of no load funds for customers to choose from. Vanguard has the Vanguard Windsor II scheme, Fidelity has Equity-Income scheme and T. Rowe Price offers the Equity-Income scheme. All these no load funds are attractive in the sense that they have no sales charge. All these funds share the same investment objectives. These no load funds charge lower ongoing expenses and have fared well during the past five years.

Though it is hard to determine the best fund house providing the best no load funds customers can carefully analyze three important parameters to make their decision. The three parameters are expense ratio, account fees and transaction fees. Depending on the expense ratio, expense fees and account fees set by the mutual fund customers can make a relative comparison between the no load mutual fund schemes available in the market and determine the best no load funds.

Ajith Aravindakshan

Hi-Tech Editorial Division