Link: Ric Edelman Accuses Vanguard of Hiding Fees – CBS MoneyWatch.com

The Expense Ratio – while VERY important – doesn’t tell the whole story.  Mutual funds, even index funds, have expenses other than the published expense ratio which can negatively impact performance.  Every time the fund buys or sells shares, there are costs both brokerage and, for big funds, market-movement.  Some funds also hide some marketing costs.  But the fun thing about this article is it goes on to show that while those hidden costs are important, they are also largely able to be minimized through well-chosen funds and fund families which manage those costs in the shareholders’ best interest.  Vanguard is an exemplar in this regard.