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 SEC rules require funds to
disclose both shareholder fees and operating expenses in a "fee table" near the front of a fund's prospectus. The
lists below will help you decode the fee table and understand the various fees a fund may
impose:  
Shareholder
Fees 
    - 
    Sales Charge (Load) on
    Purchases— the amount you pay
    when you buy shares in a mutual fund. Also known as a "front-end load," this fee typically goes to the brokers
    that sell the fund's shares. Front-end loads reduce the amount of your investment. For example, let's say you
    have $1,000 and want to invest it in a mutual fund with a 5% front-end load. The $50 sales load you must pay
    comes off the top, and the remaining $950 will be invested in the fund. According to NASD rules, a front-end
    load cannot be higher than 8.5% of your investment.
 
        
    - 
    Purchase
          Fee— another type of fee
          that some funds charge their shareholders when they buy shares. Unlike a front-end sales load, a purchase
          fee is paid to the fund (not to a broker) and is typically imposed to defray some of the fund's costs
          associated with the purchase.
 
        
    - 
    Deferred Sales Charge
    (Load)— a fee you pay when you
    sell your shares. Also known as a "back-end load," this fee typically goes to the brokers that sell the fund's
    shares. The most common type of back-end sales load is the "contingent deferred sales load" (also known as a
    "CDSC" or "CDSL"). The amount of this type of load will depend on how long the investor holds his or her shares
    and typically decreases to zero if the investor holds his or her shares long enough.
 
        
    - 
    Redemption
          Fee— another type of fee
          that some funds charge their shareholders when they sell or redeem shares. Unlike a deferred sales load,
          a redemption fee is paid to the fund (not to a broker) and is typically used to defray fund costs
          associated with a shareholder's redemption.
 
        
    - 
    Exchange
          Fee— a fee that some
          funds impose on shareholders if they exchange (transfer) to another fund within the same fund group or
          "family of funds."
 
        
    - 
    Account fee — a fee that some funds separately impose on investors in connection with
    the maintenance of their accounts. For example, some funds impose an account maintenance fee on accounts whose
    value is less than a certain dollar amount.  
 
 
Annual Fund
Operating Expenses 
    - 
    Management
          Fees— fees that are paid
          out of fund assets to the fund's investment adviser for investment portfolio management, any other
          management fees payable to the fund's investment adviser or its affiliates, and administrative fees
          payable to the investment adviser that are not included in the "Other Expenses" category (discussed
          below).
 
        
    - 
    Distribution [and/or Service] Fees ("12b-1"
    Fees)— fees paid by the fund
    out of fund assets to cover the costs of marketing and selling fund shares and sometimes to cover the costs of
    providing shareholder services. "Distribution fees" include fees to compensate brokers and others who sell fund
    shares and to pay for advertising, the printing and mailing of prospectuses to new investors, and the printing
    and mailing of sales literature. "Shareholder Service Fees" are fees paid to persons to respond to investor
    inquiries and provide investors with information about their investments.
 
        
    - 
    Other
          Expenses— expenses not
          included under "Management Fees" or "Distribution or Service (12b-1) Fees," such as any shareholder
          service expenses that are not already included in the 12b-1 fees, custodial expenses, legal and
          accounting expenses, transfer agent expenses, and other administrative expenses.
 
        
    - 
    Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses
    ("Expense Ratio") — the line of the fee table that
    represents the total of all of a fund's annual fund operating expenses, expressed as a percentage of the fund's
    average net assets. Looking at the expense ratio can help you make comparisons among funds.
     
 
 
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