The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority introduced a new and improved Fund Analyzer tool to help investors and financial professionals understand the impact of fees and potential discounts on mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, exchange-traded notes and money market funds.
The Fund Analyzer's live data feed allows individuals to sort through and compare more than 30,000 products and run a wide variety of investment scenarios. The tool also enables users to calculate how a fund's fees, expenses and discounts impact the value of a fund over time.
"The enhanced design allows investors to better determine which funds might meet their investing needs at the lowest cost while providing the best value," Gerri Walsh, FINRA's senior vice president for investor education, said in a statement. "We have also added advanced features that allow the tool to model typical investor behaviors and to illustrate the impact that wrap accounts or flat fees can have on overall costs as well as future account value when holding mutual funds."
Users may select up to three funds at a time to compare. After they input the amount of money they plan to invest and how long they plan to keep the fund, the Fund Analyzer performs the calculations.
The Fund Analyzer's display helps visualize how a fund's annual operating expenses compare to their product and share class peers.
