Adviser funds are purchased through advisers and generally require a higher minimum investment than funds available to the general public. Institutional funds are typically purchased by large institutional buyers, such as pension plans, and are typically only offered to investors who invest $1 million or more. You can easily exclude these funds from consideration using the Funds Screener.
A+ Investor subscribers can access the Funds Screener from the Funds website sections. The filters to screen adviser and institutional funds are included on the screener’s Filter Menu, under the Purchase data category. Both types of funds are included in the default screener universe of almost 25,000 funds.
Institutional funds can be excluded with a checkbox. Invariably, institutional shares have the lowest expenses in the mutual fund universe. Usually, the maximum front load is 0%, the maximum deferred load is 0% and the maximum 12b-1 fee is 0%. The investment minimum can be $25,000 or more.
There are about 8,500 institutional funds in the AAII Funds Screener Universe. Sometimes they are identified as I or Y shares. Vanguard’s Admiral Shares, which have minimum investment requirements for certain funds, are an example of institutional funds. The Vanguard 500 Index Admiral (VFIAX) fund has an expense ratio of 0.04%, which is 96% lower than its category.
Adviser funds can be excluded with the Adv checkbox under Exclude Share Class Type. Typically, the maximum front load is 0%, the maximum deferred load is 0% and the maximum 12b-1 fee is between 0 and 50 basis points The investment minimum can be $2,500 or less. There are about 750 adviser funds in the AAII Funds Screener universe.
