Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 12:50:23 -0500
From: "joeNOSPAM@bea.com" 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.financial-plan
Subject: Re: purchase Class A shares
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On Apr 17, 7:48 am, "Anne"  wrote:
> What is the difference for a fund (t rowe price, fidelity, dreyfus, vanguard) which
> lists Class A (plus some other alphabetic designations) ?
>
> does the Class A somehow designate a better composition for the fund?
>
> is it of significant benefit to be able to purchase a Class A without sales fees,
> other than the cost of the fees themselves (which is obviously a benefit) because this
> Class A does better somehow than the same fund Class T or similar ?

Hi. Class A typically refers to a *LOADED FUND* that will take X% of
the money
you send them and kick it right back to whoever sold you the fund.
This is one
of the ways advisers get paid. However, if you do just a little
research, you can
always find a NO-LOAD fund that will meet the same purpose and
performance,
and that will save you lots of money.
   Whether a fund is loaded or not, has zero bearing on how well it
will do
with your money (whatever's left after the fees). Some funds are back-
end
loaded so all your money goes in, but X% is cut away from you when you
take it out...
    If you can buy a fund that is typically loaded, without paying the
load,
then it is on equal footing for comparison with other similarly
oriented
no-load funds. Then you can compare by performance and expenses.
Some loaded-funds have shares with no front or back load, but instead
take an extra bit out every year beyond what it actually takes to run
the
fund, which goes to the seller. It is best to avoid these loads if you
can
do your own fund choosing.