Front-end load (sales charge)

Investierenab 13 J.

A fee when buying actively managed funds: up to 5% of the amount invested. With €10,000, that's €500 in fees on day one! ETFs have NO front-end load.

The front-end load (Ausgabeaufschlag, agio) is a one-off fee when buying actively managed funds. It is calculated as a percentage of the amount invested.

Typical front-end loads:

• Equity funds: 3–5%
• Mixed funds: 2–4%
• Bond funds: 1–3%
• ETFs: 0% (no front-end load!)

What this means:

You invest €10,000 in a fund with a 5% front-end load:
• €500 in fees go straight to the fund company
• Only €9,500 is actually invested
• The fund first has to earn 5.3% just for you to break even!

That's why ETFs are so popular: no front-end load, low running costs (TER 0.1–0.5%). With active funds you pay a 5% load + 1.5% TER per year. No wonder over 90% of active funds fail to beat their benchmark index.

Did you know? The front-end load used to be bank advisers' main source of income. That's why many bank advisers still recommend active funds instead of ETFs – even though ETFs are almost always cheaper for the customer.

→ ETF-Rechner

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