A-Shares

A-Shares. Think: front end load. When a buyer of a mutual fund pays the commission up front and that's it; nothing fancy like paying the commission as you go ("no load") or paying the commission on the back end, i.e. when you sell the mutual fund. Example: You buy a grand worth of The Mutual Fun Fund and pay a 4% load or commission when you buy the A-Shares. Your money managers start out your sojourn with the Fun Fund then with $960 to invest. They'll take an annual fee as well but in funds which charge loads up front, they almost always carry meaningfully lower annual fees.