Money Market Fund Expenses Fall to 40 Bps in 2006 Says ICI Fee Study. The
Investment Company Institute released "
Fee and Expenses of Mutual Funds, 2006", a study of fund expense ratios and loads over the past 25 years.
Money market fund expenses dropped 2 basis points (0.02%) to an asset-weighted average expense ratio of 0.40% in 2006. Since 1980, money fund expenses have
declined by 15 basis points, from 55 to 40 bps. ICI'
s
Sean Collins attributes the deline "
in part to a dramatic increase in the share of money fund assets held in institutional money market funds ... businesses and other institutions have increasingly recognized the benefits that institutional money funds offer in terms of scale economies, liquidity, diversification, and monitoring of credit risk". He adds that "
the market share of retail money funds has been pushed down since the late 1990s because brokerage firms have relied less on money market funds and more on bank deposit accounts as cash management vehicles for their retail clients".