Investors are normally aware if any sales charges accessed when they purchase shares of a mutual fund. However, many investors are unaware of the additional fees they pay annually on both load and no-load funds. Mutual funds have two separate ongoing internal expenses, fixed and variable. Fixed expenses include the fund’s operating costs, such as employee salaries, phones, marketing, etc. and are included in the funds Annual Expense Ratio. According to Morningstar, the average equity mutual fund’s Annual Expense Ratio is 1.20%i. Many investors, as-well-as investment advisors, are not aware of the many variable costs of operating a fund, which are excluded from the expense ratio.Variable costs include brokerage commissions and trading expenses. Whenever the fund manager buys or sells a security, a brokerage commission is paid. These expenses are disclosed in a document called the Statement of Additional Information (SAI). However, unlike the prospectus, this statement is not automatically provided to investors. It is provided upon request. As a result, few investors are aware of its existence, and of the additional fees.These fees can be substantial and even exceed the Annual Expense Ratio. Research reveals that