But many of the fund sponsors substituted nearly equivalent 12b-1 fees and back-end loads.

FORBES: Fund Manager Knows Best

Do funds in your portfolio have front- or back-end loads or short-term trading fees?

FORBES: Rethinking Rebalancing

Fidelity had no back-end loads in 1992 but 37 funds with them today.

FORBES: Magazine Article

These ongoing expenses are generally coupled with declining back-end loads (exit fees) that ensure that the broker can be paid.

FORBES: Fund Manager Knows Best

As funds have cut front-end loads, they hiked expenses that were deducted invisibly each day by 29% in the 20 years through 1999, says the SEC.

FORBES: Fund Manager Knows Best

The industry responded to investor unease about front-end loads by almost eliminating them: Sales of front-loaded funds declined from 90% of the market in 1961 to 35% in 1999.

FORBES: Fund Manager Knows Best

Typically, drivers never come close to the cornering loads necessary to feel the difference, but in the RLX, the quicker you go, the more the nose-heaviness manifests itself in understeer, a tendency to lose grip at the front end while cornering at high lateral loads.

WSJ: 2014 Acura RLX Review: Larger, but It Still Comes Up Small | Rumble Seat by Dan Neil

You can avoid loads by using closed-end funds, though you will have to pay regular stock brokerage fees.

FORBES: Fixed Income for Bears

Only three relapsed, but at the end of the trial only 140 patients, or 88%, had undetectable viral loads.

FORBES: Vertex's Big Advantage