Supreme Court to weigh in on excessive mutual fund fees

You could give up thousands of dollars in mutual fund fees and not realize you're doing it. That's because fund fees are stated in percentage rather than dollar terms.

The Supreme Court took up a case Monday to determine whether fund fees are being determined correctly and whether investors get enough information to adequately understand the fees they are paying. The case made it to the Supreme Court when U.S. Circuit Judge Frank Easterbrook created a new free market standard for regulating advisory fees. He wrote in his decision in the case Jones v. Harris Associates that, "A fiduciary must make full disclosure and play no tricks but is not subject to a cap on compensation."