New research from Lipper looks at how the financial catastrophe has impacted mutual fund expense ratios. The report, titled /The Halfway Point/, showed that expenses, for the most part, rose between November 2008 and 2009.

Around 70 percent of all equity fund expense ratios have increased, Lipper reported, with an average jump of 8.2 basis points. The study broke down the results further, noticing that long-term fixed income fund expenses held steady, while money market funds saw a 3.3 bps average drop in total expense ratios.

“A large number of funds realized small increases in total expense ratios, while a smaller number of equity funds experienced substantially larger increases,” Lipper stated.

Because fund assets dropped so drastically, much of the expense increases were a result of fixed costs and higher transfer fees spread over smaller asset bases. Lipper estimates that industry revenue generated from fees is down 30 percent over the year-long period.

For the report, Lipper analyzed data from 1,500 equity fund semiannual reports, randomly selected from a pool of 6,700. 

Edited by: Daniel Tovrov


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