Congress, the Treasury Department, the National Association of Securities Dealers, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board are weighing in, troubled by the fact that broker-sold plans may charge a load and often have annual expenses of more than 2%.

FORBES: An Expensive Education

These funds charge a 5.25% front-end load and annual expenses of 1.2% of assets.

FORBES: In The Sunshine

To help make this pill palatable to working-class investors, fund families often stress at some point there will be no big, one-time front-end load, such as the 5.75% sales charge for traditional Class A fund shares.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Morgan Fleming European ( VEUCX) funds are no load, but AIM European Small Company has a front-end sales charge.

FORBES: Magazine Article

The current rulemaking orgy comes as three out of four investors can't define an "expense ratio" and two-thirds think "no-load" funds are free (in truth, they don't charge a fee to start an account, but they do take annual charges for expenses).

FORBES: OutFront