1. Management Expense Ratio (MER)
The MER is an annual fee that's charged to a mutual fund to pay for such expenses as:
- management fees paid to the managers of the fund
- adviser sales commissions and ongoing service (trailer) fees
- legal and audit fees
- custodian and transfer agent fees
- fund administration expenses
- marketing expenses (guess who pays for all those TV, radio and print ads?)
Here is a link with answers on other terms.
http://www.bylo.org/affordmf.html