Earlier this month, Financial Executives International (FEI), an advocacy organization for financial professionals, published their own survey of auditor fees.
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The research center within MoneyRates, a sister site to Consumerism Commentary, released its mid-year survey of checking account fees and found that in every major area measured, fees have increased over the past six months.
But mortgage interest payments are not included in the CPI, nor are a variety of other costs, such as house depreciation, buildings insurance and ground rent, and house transaction costs such as estate agents' fees, survey costs and conveyancing charges.
The average fees in the survey varied widely between different sizes and types of banks.
FORBES: Bank Fees Survey Mid-2012: Checking and ATM Costs Jump Again
They also failed to pick the cheapest fund, and in a survey after the experiment listed fees as the fifth most important factor in making their decision, behind performance.
The average advisor fee is 0.90% per year according to the Advisor Benchmarking 2009 Annual Survey results, however, fees charged by individual advisors run the gamut from very low cost (0.25%) to irrationally high (3.0%).
The results really caught my attention because the survey highlights the issues of fees at a time when clients are apt to be a little testy when their next statements come and their account valuations are down.
In Wisconsin, 21% percent of respondents to the National Physicians Foundation survey indicated that they plan to raise fees on those with private insurance in order to compensate for the cuts.
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Monitoring SOx fees was the focus of their survey when it was first launched.
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The FEI survey found very modest changes in overall audit fees compared to last year.
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And some 27% of hedge fund managers, according to the survey, put little or none of those fees back into the funds they manage.
More good news for bank consumers: since the January 2011 Bank Fee Survey, average minimum balance requirements to avoid fees are lower, and average monthly checking account maintenance fees (for those who pay them) are also slightly lower.
The latest FEI Audit Fee Survey, sponsored by NYSE-Euronext, focuses on audit fees in total, not just Sarbanes-Oxley (SOx) Section 404-related fees.
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The survey indicated most small lenders will be forced to impose monthly or annual fees for debit-card use.
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An AARP survey found 70% of 401k participants had no idea there were embedded fees reducing their performance.
According to an online survey, two-thirds of travelers have been surprised by add-on fees after arriving at the airport.
In a survey last November, Travelocity found car rental taxes (including special airport facility fees) at the 100 largest U.S. airports averaged 28%, up from 25% in early 2005.
The National Union of Students has carried out a survey which it says shows there is little public sympathy for an increase in tuition fees.
Three-quarters (75%) of respondents to the latest survey said the shortfall in funding meant they would be unlikely to reduce their childcare fees even if the government lowered staff-to-child ratios.
There was no monthly maintenance fee at 45.8 percent of the accounts at small banks in the survey, whereas only 21 percent of the accounts at large banks were free of those fees.
FORBES: Bank Fees Survey Mid-2012: Checking and ATM Costs Jump Again
According to a recent AARP survey, 71% of people with 401(k)s didn't even know they were paying fees for their retirement accounts.
When the company set out to do its survey, Ferencsik said, "We were curious to find out how much people were frustrated, " by fees, such as the one for checked baggage.
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