TDA Vendor Information

Understanding Fees

Fees and expenses can vary widely from fund to fund, or from fund class to fund class. Even small differences in fees can make a big difference in your investment returns over time. While lower fees do not necessarily translate into higher returns, when you invest in lower-cost funds, more of your money goes to purchasing investments and you keep a higher percentage of the potential returns generated by every fund in your portfolio.

To locate the fees you will want to view the expense ratio. An expense ratio is a ratio of your investment that goes toward the fund’s expenses on an annual basis. If you invest in a mutual fund with a 1.0 expense ratio, you’ll pay the fund 1.0% or $10 per year for every $1,000 invested. Expense ratios are not deducted from your account or investment rather from your return. This means if the investments owned by the fund delivered a gross return of 10%, and the fund has an expense ratio of 1%, your return, net of fees, is 9%.

Simple ways to find the expense ratio?

1. You can locate the expense ratio of an investment through the vendor information below, on the investment page look for Expense Ratio. For Ameriprise or GALIC please contact them directly.
2. You may also look up a fund’s expense ratio in the fund’s prospectus. You can download a fund’s prospectus from the mutual fund company’s website. Look in the table of contents for a section called Fees and Expenses, and it will tell you the expense ratio of your fund.

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