FEES GOING UP

Tip:

The bear market is chewing upphysician-investors in more waysthan simply taking a bite out of theirstock values. As stocks sink, assetsheld by mutual funds shrink. Sincefund charges are based on assets,fund income has been melting alongwith the S&P 500. The solution forfund companies is to raise expenseratios, and many have already doneso, but for shareholders, just smallincrements in expense ratios can addup to thousands of dollars less intheir nest eggs 20 or 30 years downthe road. Check your stockfund's expense ratio—if it's at orhigher than the industry average of1.5%, look into low-cost funds likeTIAA-CREF (800-223-1200) orVanguard (877-662-7447).