The original impetus for this research was provided several years ago by a request to assist Counsel for Fidelity Management and Research Corporation in analyzing the mutual fund industry, with particular emphasis on money market mutual funds. We were asked to focus our efforts on the mechanism by which the advisory fees of mutual funds are determined. This request arose out of litigation that challenged the level of advisory fees charged to the shareholders of the Fidelity Cash Reserve Fund. Subsequently, we were asked to provide similar assistance to Counsel for T. Rowe Price Associates regarding the fees charged to shareholders of their Prime Reserve Fund. 1940, advisers of Under the Investment Company Act of mutual funds have a fiduciary duty with respect to the level of fees they may charge a fund's shareholders. Since the passage of the Investment Company Act, there have been numerous lawsuits brought by shareholders alleging that advisory fees were excessive. In these lawsuits, the courts have failed to provide a set of standards for determining when such fees are excessive. Instead, they have relied on arbitrary and frequently ill-defined criteria for jUdging the reasonableness of fees. This failure to apply economic-based tests for evaluating the fee structure of mutual funds provided the motivation for the present book, which undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the economics of the mutual fund industry.

Mutual funds form the bedrock of retirement savings in the United States, and, considering their rapid growth, are sure to be more critical in the future. Because the size of fees paid by investors to mutual fund advisers can strongly affect the return on investment, these fees have become a contentious issue in Congress and the courts, with many arguing that investment advisers grow rich at the expense of investors.

This ground-breaking book not only conceptualizes a new economic model of the mutual fund industry, but also uses this model to test for price competition between investment advisers, evaluating the assertion that market forces fail to protect investors' returns from excessive fees. Highly experienced authors track the growth of the industry over the past twenty-five years and present arguments and evidence both for and against theories of adviser malfeasance. The authors review the regulatory history of mutual fund fees and summarize leading case decisions addressing excessive fees.

Revealing the extent to which the governance structure of mutual funds truly impacts fund performance, this book provides the best understanding of today's mutual fund industry and is a vital tool for investors, money managers, fund directors, securities lawyers, economists, and anyone concerned with the regulation of mutual funds.

Der Grundgedanke dieses Buches ist der pragmatische Umgang mit Komplikationen, also wertfreies Aufzeigen des Abweichens vom "idealen" Verlauf in der Dermatologie. Die dermatologische Diagnostik und Therapie umfassen eine Vielzahl verschiedener Verfahren, die von konservativen bis zu invasiven Techniken reichen. Eine Zusammenfassung klinisch relevanter Komplikationen, getrennt nach verschiedenen diagnostischen Schwierigkeiten, ist in dieser Form neu. Eindrucksvolle Beispiele sind die Abnahmetechniken von Schuppenmaterial bei mykologischen Untersuchungen oder von Hautbiopsien zur histologischen Diagnostik. Viele Fallbeispiele und eindrucksvolle Illustrationen bieten dem Leser wertvolle Hilfestellung fur die tagliche Praxis sowie im Umgang mit Abweichungen von der Norm. Das Buch richtet sich sowohl an Facharzte der Dermatologie und Kollegen in der Facharztausbildung wie auch an Vertreter anderer Fachgruppen (wie z.B. Allgemeinmediziner), die mit dermatologischen Untersuchungsverfahren konfrontiert sind."