If you have been dealing with mutual funds for any length of time, you undoubtedly have faced the question of which is better: Load Funds or No Load Funds. If you are new to investing, "load" simply refers to the commission paid to the broker selling the fund. "No load" means there is no commission on the purchase or sale.
Most discussions in the past have centered exclusively on performance comparisons. Even rating services like Morningstar have occasionally chimed in with their opinion. However, rather than focusing only on performance, there are some other issues I consider far more important:
Who is selling load funds and why? Most load funds are being sold through brokerage houses, financial planners and Registered Representatives. With few exceptions, most of those folks operate on the basis of selling as much product as possible. They collect their commissions up front, as a back end charge, or both (usually in the range of 5 - 6%). Whether you make money or not is not their primary concern. What matters most to those operating under this approach is how often you buy