Sales commissions, also known as loads, are probably the clearest tie-breakers. Take the case of two international European stock funds.
Both have comparable performance records and even similar risk, expense ratios, size, and manager profiles. They have identical investment objectives, focusing on European stocks, and they are offered by large fund families with a long menu of services. One charges a 3.0% front-end load and a 1.0% redemption fee for all money removed in less than 90 days. Neither front- and back-end loads nor redemption fees are reflected in performance figures. And while returns going forward are always uncertain, the load is charged with perfect certainty and reduces your performance dollar-for-dollar without any beneficial effect on fund performance. Choose the no-load fund.
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