Clean Shares: What Directors Need to Know

It looks increasingly like the distribution challenges of the next decade will not be between retail and institutional channels, but rather among different kinds of institutional funds, each with its own sort of omnibus economics. The question of who pays for distribution, absent 25 basis point 12b-1 fees, moves to the forefront and remains to be answered: The end investor directly through intermediary account fees. The end investor again, but but through sub-TA and other non-12b-1 distribution fees embedded in the expense ratio, which, if adequately "leveled," would not create a conflict of interest. The fund manager, out of their own “legitimate profits.” Or, a combination of these. What’s settled (for now at least) is that 12b-1 fees seem to be going away, management fees are going down, and non-management fees are… to be determined.