‘장기투자용’ 선취수수료를 두 달짜리 펀드에서 떼갔다…금감원 제동

A total of seven out of ten investors who joined "goal-switching type funds" last year faced "front-loading fees," which can disadvantage short-term investors, according to financial watchdogs. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) halted the sale of these funds due to concerns about their practices. The FSS held its fourth Consumer Risk Management Consultative Meeting on April 4th to discuss this issue, as reported on June 6th.

The meeting aims to prevent consumer financial harm, as mandated by the FSS. The discussion focused on the cost structure of goal-switching funds, which invest in risky assets like stocks and convert to safer assets like bonds when target returns are achieved. Typically, consumers sell their funds and switch to another when the target return is met.

The fees involved are the front-loading fee paid upon joining and the sales charge, which is a percentage of daily fund net assets. Front-loading fees are advantageous for long-term investors, but 71.8% of investors who joined goal-switching funds after 2024 had A-class status. The remaining investors opted for C-class funds without front-loading fees and higher sales charges.

The problem lies in the fact that recent market volatility has significantly reduced the average period for achieving target returns, from 249 days in 2024 to just 57 days in the first half of this year. Despite this, most consumers still opted for A-class funds, which are considered more beneficial for long-term investments. For A-class funds to become more advantageous than C-class funds, investors would need to stay invested for more than two years, according to the findings.

The FSS is concerned about fund dealers heavily recommending A-class funds to consumers. They emphasized the lack of thorough explanation of cost structures during the purchase process, as well as the incomplete sales approach that could lead to incomplete sales. As a result, the FSS has mandated the inclusion of detailed "investment risks" information in the "investment considerations" section of fund sales reports.

The FSS also stated that they will take action to ensure dealers fully disclose sales charges and other burdens.