WatchFrom the Motley Fool.
"The problem is that a group of Wall Street "pros" have been getting rich off folks like my parents for years, and not enough people realize it. You see, the 1% charged every year is what the mutual fund's managers charge for their "expertise" in picking winning stocks and sectors.
These days, anyone could just as easily invest in the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: VOO ) to get the same returns. The difference is that at Vanguard, stocks are simply bought to mimic the composition of the S&P 500; there's no professional stock-picker trading in and out of stocks on a daily basis. The expense ratio for this fund is just 0.05%--far below my parents' mutual fund."