Mutual Funds via Stock Brokers

[HCPierce]

Mark: When some mutual funds are bought or sold through stock brokers there may be stock broker transaction fees in addition to Mutual Fund Company load fees. In purchases, these will either add to the total purchase price or be subtracted from the money paid to the broker reducing the amount which will actually be applied to the fund. In sales, the transaction fee is a fixed amount taken from the proceeds of a sale of shares of a fund. In FM, there is no provision in the buy/sell of mutual funds to provide for these in a separate manner. The only way I find to deal with this is to ignore these fees as if they were a part of the sale price and add the data as a note in the transaction entry.
H. C. Pierce, "Chuck", Dana Point, CA

[Mark]

Hi Chuck,

Why not lump all the fees together into the commission fee? There is only 1 "fee" field on transactions, but it should include all the fees, whether paid to the broker or the mutual fund company.

You may prefer to change the way you enter buys/sells for these funds. You have the choice of:

No-Fee
%Load
Commission Fee

See the "Investment Properties... / Other / Transaction Entry Preference" dialog. This option defaults to some value based off the investment type when you create the investment, but you can change it to anything you want.

[HCPierce]

Mark:

First: Within the FM box for a Mutual Fund Buy or Sell, I can only find a box labelled "Actual Price" which is computed into a "Load %"

Perhaps this data from Scottrade will help explain since there can be both Stock Broker (Scottrade) Transaction Fees and/or Mutual Fund Load fees on the same transaction.

Data from Scottrade:
**********************************
Mutual Fund Transaction Fee Information

Mutual Fund Transaction Fee*

Fund Types:

No Transaction Fee, No-Load Fund**
Buy_______No Fee
Sell_______No Fee
Exchange__No Fee

Transaction Fee, No-Load Fund
Buy_______$17.00
Sell_______$17.00
Exchange__$17.00

Load Fund
Buy_______No Fee
Sell_______$17.00***
Exchange__$17.00***

*Mutual Fund orders placed through a broker will be subject to a $20.00 additional fee in addition to the fee set forth above. Fund shares purchased from Scottrade that are held for less than 90 days will be charged a $17 fee, except for the Rydex, Profunds, and Direxion Funds intended for short term traders.

**NTF funds are subject to the terms and conditions for the NTF funds program. Scottrade is compensated by the funds participating in the NTF program through record keeping, shareholder or SEC Rule 12b-1 fees. For more complete information on any mutual fund offered through Scottrade, refer to the fund's prospectus. Please read it carefully before you invest or send money.

***The Transaction Fee is waived for buys and sells of Class B and C shares. Mutual Fund exchanges of B and C shares will be subject to the $17 transaction fee.

[Mark]

Hi Chuck,

It sounds like this investment is set to %Load for your transaction entry preference. Just right mouse click on the investment, and choose "Investment Properties...". Then, click on the "Other" tab, and under "Transaction Entry Preferences" select "Commission Fee".

This will allow you to enter a total dollar amount paid for all combined fees, which should include the fees paid to the broker and the mutual fund company, and any other fees you incurred.