12B-1 Fees

12B-1 fees

The percent of a mutual fund's assets used to defray marketing and distribution expenses. The amount of the fee is stated in the fund's prospectus. The SEC has recently proposed that 12B-1 fees in excess of 0.25% be classed as a load. A true no load fund has neither a sales charge nor a 12b-1 fee.

---

12B-1 Fee

A fee one must pay in a 12B-1 Plan. A 12B-1 plan is a mutual fund that, instead of a load (or sales fee), annually charges shareholders a small percentage of the fund's market value, which is called a 12B-1 fee. Instead of assessing a fee when buying or selling shares as most mutual funds do, 12B-1 fees are deductions from the fund's market value per shareholder. Usually a 12B-1 fee is less than 1% of the market value.