Reuters writes "PIMCO's Gross blasts own industry for high fees". The article mentions money funds deep inside, saying of PIMCO's bond guru Bill Gross, "He highlighted a recent Barron's article that pointed out that stock funds extract an average 99 basis points or virtually 1 percent a year in fees from an investor's portfolio, while bond managers at 75 basis points. Many money market funds manage to charge 38 basis points." It quotes Gross, "Since money market funds barely earn 38 basis points these days, much of the return winds up in the hands of investment managers. A mighty expensive potion indeed." Crane Data's Money Fund Intelligence XLS spreadsheet shows our Crane 100 Money Fund Index, the 100 largest taxable money funds, averaging 0.37% in expenses, and our broader Crane Money Fund Average charging 0.47% in expenses. We show the average gross (before expenses are deducted) 7-day annualized yield for the Crane 100 was 0.60% as of June 30, 2009, which would mean expenses of 0.37% are currently taking up 62% of gross yields. See also, Reuters' "US money mkt fund assets fall by $9 bln - iMoneyNet".
