November 5, 2010
The fees companies like MFS, Putnam and the American Funds charge have been around for years and are not unreasonable.
Having broker/dealers charge their own fees is a bad idea.
It takes an hour to meet with a client and another hour to do the paperwork if any changes are made in their portfolio because of all the regulations. There is a cost to perform that service. I am all for protecting the consumer from abuse. However, policing the "bad" actors is a much better idea than lowering fees.