THUMBS DOWN: Fund Fees on the Rise

According to figures from LipperInc, management fees formost mutual funds are on therise, so equity fund shareholdersare taking a double hit—a loss inshare value coupled with a biggerbite from fund managers.Management fees rose for almostall categories of funds, with realestate investment trusts and telecomfunds notching the biggestincrease in median fees, at 0.085percentage points. What aboutthe numbers from the mutualfund industry trade group InvestmentCompany Institute thatshow the cost of owning a mutualfund actually dipped 5%between 1998 and 2001? Fundbuyers opting for no-load andlow-cost funds accounted formost of that decrease, marketexperts say, not lower fees.