August 23, 2010
The original premise behind these fees was,charitably speaking,flawed: fund managers would reduce their management fee if more assets were gathered. The mutual fund industry has ballooned and yet average fees have gone up.
The original premise has been bastardized into, among other things, a tool for stock-broker compensation, presumably for on-going advice, yet without the investor protection of fiduciary responsibility.
It is high time to revoke section 12b-1 which I recommend, or, at the very least, return to the .25% original rule as a maximum.