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Letter from the ICI Research: Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Chapter 3: Chapter 5: Chapter 6: Chapter 7: Appendix A: Appendix C: |
after-tax return. The total return of a fund after the effects of taxes on distributions and/or redemptions have been assessed. Funds are required by federal securities law to calculate after-tax returns using standardized formulas based upon the highest tax rates. (Consequently, they are not representative of the after-tax returns of most mutual fund shareholders.) These standardized after-tax returns are not relevant for shareholders in tax-deferred retirement accounts. annual report. A report that a fund sends to its shareholders that discusses the fund’s performance over the past fiscal year and identifies the securities in the fund’s portfolio on the last business day of the fund’s fiscal year. The annual report includes audited financial statements. See also semiannual report. appreciation. An increase in an investment’s value. Contrast depreciation. assets. Securities, cash, and receivables owned by the fund. automatic reinvestment. A fund service giving shareholders the option to purchase additional shares using dividend and capital gain distributions. authorized participant. An entity, usually an institutional investor, that submits orders to the exchange-traded fund (ETF) for the creation and redemption of ETF “creation units.” back-end load. See contingent deferred sales load (CDSL). bear market. A period during which the majority of securities prices in a particular market (such as the stock market) drop substantially. One generally accepted measure is a price decline of 20 percent or more over at least a two-month period. Contrast bull market. bond. A debt security issued by a company, municipality, or government agency. A bond investor lends money to the issuer and, in exchange, the issuer promises to repay the loan amount on a specified maturity date; the issuer usually pays the bondholder periodic interest payments over the life of the loan. breakpoints. The dollar amounts at which many mutual funds offer reduced fees to investors. There are two kinds of breakpoints. One kind is a reduction in sales charges (load fees) to investors when they initially purchase fund shares. The amount of the discount varies, depending upon the amount of the investment: the more invested, the greater the likelihood of surpassing a “breakpoint” and thus receiving a discount. The other kind of breakpoint is a reduction in management fees that fund advisers may charge their associated funds as fund assets surpass a given level. broker-dealer. A firm that buys and sells mutual fund shares and other securities from and to investors, operating as either a broker or dealer depending on the transaction. bull market. A period during which a majority of securities prices in a particular market (such as the stock market) rise substantially. Contrast bear market. capital gain distributions. Profits distributed to shareholders resulting from the sale of securities held in the fund’s portfolio. closed-end fund. A type of investment company that issues a fixed number of shares that trade intraday on stock exchanges at market-determined prices. Investors in a closed-end fund buy or sell shares through a broker, just as they would trade the shares of any publicly traded company. commission. A fee paid to a broker or other sales agent for services related to transactions in securities. compounding. The effect of growth on reinvestment of future earnings. Over time, compounding can produce significant growth in the value of an investment. contingent deferred sales load (CDSL). A fee imposed by some funds when shares are redeemed (sold back to the fund) during the first few years of ownership. Also known as back-end load. Coverdell education savings account (ESA). This type of account, formerly known as an Education IRA, is a tax-advantaged trust or custodial account set up to pay the qualified education expenses of a designated beneficiary. creation unit. A specified number of shares issued by an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in large blocks, generally between 25,000 and 200,000 shares. The authorized participants that buy creation units either keep the ETF shares that make up the creation unit or sell all or part of them on a stock exchange. credit risk. The possibility that a bond issuer may not be able to pay interest or repay its debt. custodian. An organization, usually a bank, that safeguards the securities and other assets of a mutual fund. depreciation. A decline in an investment’s value. Contrast appreciation. distribution. 1) The payment of dividends and capital gains, or 2) a term used to describe a method of selling fund shares to the public. diversification. The practice of investing broadly across a number of different securities, industries, or asset classes to reduce risk. Diversification is a key benefit of investing in mutual funds and other investment companies that have diversified portfolios. dollar-cost averaging. The practice of investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, regardless of whether the securities markets are declining or rising, in the hopes of reducing average share cost by acquiring more shares when prices are low and fewer shares when prices are high. education IRA. See Coverdell education savings account (ESA). equity fund. See stock fund. exchange privilege. A fund option enabling shareholders to transfer their investments from one fund to another within the same fund family as their needs or objectives change. Typically, fund companies allow exchanges several times a year for a low or no fee. exchange-traded fund (ETF). An investment company, typically a mutual fund or unit investment trust, whose shares are traded intraday on stock exchanges at market-determined prices. Investors may buy or sell ETF shares through a broker just as they would the shares of any publicly traded company. ex-dividend date. With regard to mutual funds, this is the day on which declared distributions (dividends or capital gains) are deducted from the fund’s assets before it calculates its net asset value (NAV). The NAV per share will drop by the amount of the distribution per share. expense ratio. A fund’s total expenses—disclosed in the prospectus and shareholder reports—expressed as a percentage of its assets. face value. The stated principal or redemption value of a bond; the amount that a bond’s issuer must repay at the bond’s maturity date. family of funds. A group or “complex” of mutual funds, each typically with its own investment objective, managed and distributed by the same company. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). A self-regulatory organization with authority over broker-dealer firms that distribute mutual fund shares as well as other securities. 529 Plan. An investment program, offered by state governments, designed to help pay future qualified higher education expenses. States offer two types of 529 plans: prepaid tuition programs allow contributors to establish an account in the name of a student to cover the cost of a specified number of academic periods or course units in the future at current prices; and college savings plans allow individuals to contribute to an investment account to pay for a student’s qualified higher education expenses. forward pricing. The concept describing the price at which mutual fund shareholders buy or redeem fund shares. Shareholders must receive the next computed share price following the fund’s receipt of a shareholder transaction order. 457 plan. An employer-sponsored retirement plan that enables employees of state and local governments and other tax-exempt employers to make tax-deferred contributions from their salaries to the plan. 401(k) plan. An employer-sponsored retirement plan that enables employees to make tax-deferred contributions from their salaries to the plan. 403(b) plan. An employer-sponsored retirement plan that enables employees of universities, public schools, and nonprofit organizations to make tax-deferred contributions from their salaries to the plan. front-end load. A fee imposed by some funds at the point of purchase. funds of funds. Mutual funds that hold and invest in shares of other mutual funds. fund supermarket. A brokerage platform that provides access to funds from a wide range of fund families. health savings account (HSA). A plan that allows workers with high-deductible health insurance coverage to set aside money each year for routine or future health care costs. hedge fund. A private investment pool for qualified (typically wealthy) investors that, unlike a mutual fund, is exempt from SEC registration. hybrid fund. A mutual fund that invests in a mix of equity and fixed-income securities. income distributions. Dividends, interest, and/or short-term capital gains paid to a mutual fund’s shareholders. Operating expenses are deducted from income before it is distributed to shareholders. independent director. A fund director or trustee who does not have any significant business relationship with a mutual fund’s adviser or underwriter. An independent director better enables the fund board to provide an independent check on the fund’s management. index mutual fund. A fund designed to track the performance of a market index. The fund’s portfolio of securities is either a replicate or a representative sample of the designated market index. individual retirement account (IRA). A tax-deferred account set up by or for an individual to hold and invest funds for retirement. inflation risk. The risk that the purchasing power of the future value of assets or income will be lower due to inflation. initial public offering (IPO). A corporation’s or closed-end fund’s first offering of stock or fund shares to the public. institutional investor. The businesses, nonprofit organizations, and other similar investors who own funds and other securities on behalf of their organizations. This classification of investors differs from individual or household investors who own the majority of investment company assets. interest rate risk. The possibility that a bond’s or bond mutual fund’s value will decrease due to rising interest rates. intraday indicative value (IIV). A real-time estimate of an exchange-traded fund’s (ETF) intraday value. Third-party providers calculate and disseminate this measure every 15 to 60 seconds during securities market trading hours. investment adviser. See adviser. investment company. A corporation, trust, or partnership that invests pooled shareholder dollars in securities appropriate to the organization’s objective. Mutual funds, closed-end funds, unit investment trusts, and exchange-traded funds are the main types of SEC-registered investment companies. investment objective. The goal (e.g., current income, long-term capital growth) that a mutual fund pursues on behalf of its investors. issuer. The company, municipality, or government agency that issues securities, such as stocks, bonds, or money market instruments. Keogh plan. A tax-favored retirement plan covering self-employed individuals, partners, and owners of unincorporated businesses; also called an H.R. 10 plan. These plans were first made available by Congress in 1962, but today operate under rules very similar to those for retirement plans for a corporation’s employees. lifecycle fund. Hybrid funds that follow a predetermined reallocation of risk over a working career and into retirement for a person expecting to retire at the target date. These funds invest in a mix of asset classes and typically rebalance their portfolios over time to become more conservative and income-producing. Also known as target date fund. lifestyle fund. Mutual funds that maintain a predetermined risk level and generally use words such as “conservative,” “moderate,” or “aggressive” in their names to indicate the fund’s risk level. Also known as target risk fund. liquidity. The ability to gain ready access to invested money. Mutual funds are liquid because their shares can be redeemed for the next computed net asset value on any business day. load. See sales charge. load fund. A mutual fund that imposes a sales charge—either when fund shares are purchased (front-end load) or redeemed (contingent deferred sales load)—or a fund that charges a 12b-1 fee greater than 0.25 percent. long-term funds. A mutual fund industry designation for all funds other than money market funds. Long-term funds are broadly divided into equity (stock), bond, and hybrid funds. management fee. The amount paid by a mutual fund to the investment adviser for its services. maturity. The date by which an issuer promises to repay a bond’s face value. money market fund. A mutual fund that invests in short-term, high-grade fixed-income securities, and seeks the highest level of income consistent with preservation of capital (i.e., maintaining a stable share price). mutual fund. An investment company that buys a portfolio of securities selected by a professional investment adviser to meet a specified financial goal (investment objective). Mutual funds can have actively managed portfolios, where a professional investment adviser creates a unique mix of investments to meet a particular investment objective, or passively managed portfolios, in which the adviser seeks to track the performance of a selected benchmark or index. One hallmark of mutual funds is that they issue “redeemable securities,” meaning that the fund stands ready to buy back its shares at their current net asset value. net asset value (NAV). The per-share value of an investment company, calculated by subtracting the fund’s liabilities from the current market value of its assets and dividing by the number of shares outstanding. Mutual funds calculate their NAVs at least once daily. net new cash flow. The dollar value of new sales minus redemptions, plus net exchanges. A positive number indicates new sales plus exchanges into funds exceeded redemptions plus exchanges out of funds. A negative number indicates redemptions plus exchanges out of funds exceeded new sales plus exchanges into funds. no-load fund. A mutual fund whose shares are sold without a sales commission and without a 12b-1 fee of more than 0.25 percent per year. open-end investment company. The legal name for a mutual fund, indicating that it stands ready to redeem (buy back) its shares from investors. operating expenses. Business costs paid from a fund’s assets. These include management fees, payroll deduction plan. An arrangement that some employers offer employees where employees can authorize their employer to deduct a specified amount from their salaries at stated times to buy mutual fund shares. pooled investing. The basic concept behind mutual funds in which a fund aggregates the assets of investors who share common financial goals. A fund uses the pool assets to buy a diversified portfolio of investments, and each mutual fund share purchased represents ownership in all the fund’s underlying securities. portfolio. A collection of securities owned by an individual or an institution (such as a mutual fund) that may include stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and other securities. portfolio manager. A specialist employed by a mutual fund’s adviser to invest the fund’s assets in accordance with predetermined investment objectives. portfolio turnover. A measure of the trading activity in a fund’s investment portfolio; how often securities are bought and sold by a fund. prepayment risk. The possibility that a bond owner will receive his or her principal investment back from the issuer prior to the bond’s maturity date. principal. See face value. prospectus. The official document that describes an investment company to prospective investors. The prospectus contains information required by the SEC, such as investment objectives and policies, risks, services, and fees. quality. A term used in portfolio management to describe the creditworthiness of an issuer of fixed-income securities and indicate the likelihood that the issuer will be able to repay its debt. redeem. To sell mutual fund shares back to the fund. Mutual fund shares may be redeemed on any business day. An investor receives the next computed share price, called net asset value (NAV), minus any deferred sales charge or redemption fee. redemption price. The amount per share that mutual fund shareholders receive when they redeem. reinvestment privilege. An option whereby shareholders may elect to use dividend and capital gain distributions to automatically buy additional fund shares. risk/return tradeoff. The principle that an investment must offer higher potential returns as compensation for the likelihood of higher volatility in returns. rollover. The transfer of an investor’s assets from one qualified retirement plan (including an IRA) to another—due to changing jobs, for instance—without a tax penalty. Roth IRA. An individual retirement plan, first available in 1998, that permits only after-tax contributions; earnings are not taxed, and qualified distributions of earnings and principal are generally tax-free. sales charge. An amount charged for the sale of some fund shares, usually those sold by brokers or other sales professionals. By regulation, mutual fund sales charges are capped. The charge may vary depending on the amount invested and the fund chosen. SAR-SEP IRA (salary reduction simplified employee pension plan). A SEP IRA with a salary reduction feature (see SEP IRA). The Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996, which created SIMPLE IRAs, prohibited the formation of new SAR-SEP IRAs, which were created in 1986. secondary market. Market in which an investor purchases or sells certain investment company shares (closed-end, UIT, and ETF) from another investor through an intermediary such as a broker-dealer. Securities and Exchange Commission. See U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). securitization. The process of aggregating similar instruments, such as loans or mortgages, into a negotiable security, such as the creation of mortgage-backed securities. semiannual report. A report a fund sends to its shareholders that discusses the fund’s performance over the first six months of the fiscal year and identifies the securities in the fund’s portfolio on the last business day of the first six months of the fiscal year. See also annual report. SEP IRA (simplified employee pension plan). A retirement program created in 1978 that consists of individual retirement accounts for all eligible employees, to which the employer can contribute according to certain rules. A fairly simple, inexpensive plan to establish and administer, a SEP can be attractive to small businesses and self-employed individuals. series fund. A group of different mutual funds, each with its own investment objective and policies, that is structured as a single corporation or business trust. share classes. Some mutual funds offer investors different types of shares known as classes. Each class will invest in the same portfolio of securities and will have the same investment objectives and policies, but each class will have different shareholder services and/or distribution arrangements with different fees and expenses and, therefore, different performance results. A multiclass structure offers investors the ability to select a fee and expense structure that is most appropriate for their investment goals (including the time that they expect to remain invested in the fund). shareholder. An investor who owns shares of a mutual fund or other company. short-term fund. See money market fund. SIMPLE IRA (savings incentive match plan for employees). A simplified tax-favored retirement plan created in 1996 that small employers can set up for the benefit of their employees. Standard & Poor’s 500 index (S&P 500). A daily measure of stock market performance based on 500 U.S. stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation. statement of additional information (SAI). The supplementary document to a prospectus that contains more detailed information about a fund; also known as “Part B” of the prospectus. stock. A share of ownership or equity in a corporation. stock fund. A fund that concentrates its investments in stocks. summary prospectus. A short-form prospectus that mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may use with investors if the fund meets certain requirements, including making the long-form prospectus and additional information available online or in paper upon request. See also prospectus. target date fund. See lifecycle fund. target risk fund. See lifestyle fund. total net assets. The total amount of assets, less any liabilities, a fund holds as of a certain date. total return. A measure of a fund’s performance that encompasses all elements of return: dividends, capital gain distributions, and changes in net asset value. Total return is the change in value of an investment over a given period, assuming reinvestment of any dividends and capital gain distributions, expressed as a percentage of the initial investment. traditional IRA. The first type of individual retirement account, created in 1974. Individuals may make tax-deductible or nondeductible (depending on income and other requirements) contributions to these accounts. See also individual retirement account (IRA). transfer agent. The internal or external organization that a mutual fund uses to prepare and maintain records relating to shareholder accounts. 12b-1 fee. A mutual fund fee, named for the SEC rule that permits it, used to pay distribution costs, such as compensation to financial advisers for initial and ongoing assistance. If a fund has a 12b-1 fee, it will be disclosed in the fee table of a fund’s prospectus. underwriter. The organization that sells a mutual fund’s shares to broker-dealers and investors. unit investment trust (UIT). A type of fund with some characteristics of mutual funds and some of closed-end funds. Like mutual funds, UITs issue redeemable shares. Like closed-end funds, however, UITs typically issue only a specific, fixed number of shares. A UIT does not actively trade its investment portfolio, instead buying and holding a set of particular investments until a set termination date, at which time the trust is dissolved and proceeds are paid to shareholders. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The primary U.S. government agency responsible for the regulation of the day-to-day operations and disclosure obligations of registered investment companies. variable annuity. An investment contract sold by an insurance company; capital is accumulated, often through mutual fund investments, with the option to convert to an income stream in retirement. withdrawal plan. A fund service allowing shareholders to receive income or principal payments from their fund account at regular intervals. yield. A measure of income (dividends and interest) earned by the securities in a fund’s portfolio less the fund’s expenses during a specified period. A fund’s yield is expressed as a percentage of the maximum offering price per share on a specified date. |
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