mutual fund fees

Could you be keeping more of the money that your portfolio is producing? DailyFinance spoke with two top professional investment managers and came up with eight tax strategies to help you maximize your after-tax returns.

Does your 401(k) plan provide investment advice? Probably not. Is the plan adviser a "real" fiduciary? Doubtful. Find out what the investment industry would probably prefer you didn't know about your 401(k) plan.

Fidelity Investments says 401(k) loan and hardship withdrawals are rising. But instead of offering costly, actively managed funds, Fidelity could take the lead in reforming a system that primarily benefits mutual fund families and plan advisers.

The Labor Department's new regulations don't address the core problems of this broken system. Disclosing revenue-sharing payments for retirement-plan mutual funds isn't nearly enough. Those fees are laden with conflicts of interest, and should be prohibited altogether.

D. Bruce Johnsen, a professor of law at George Mason University in Arlington, Va., likes to keep things simple. Explaining the conclusions of his recent study, Myths About Mutual Fund Fees: Economic Insights on Jones v. Harris, he says bluntly: "Lower advisory fees don't necessarily benefit...