Front end load for RSP

[seven3]

Reviewing some RSP statements for a friend, I noticed that their Freedom 55 advisor put them into Front End loaded funds.

The funds are Quadrus, Mackenzie, etc. funds all in the 2.5% MER range. They all seem to track the market closely.

1) Is the Front-end load for an RSP a ripoff? Especially if the individual is 30 years away from retirement?

2) Is anyone familiar with the Quadrus Group of Funds?

[brucecohen]

1) Is the Front-end load for an RSP a ripoff? Especially if the individual is 30 years away from retirement?

Depends on the size of the load, if any. A growing number of advisors now sell funds at 0% load. They do this because their business plan is focused on attracting/keeping long-term clientele and the trailer on a fund's front-load version is twice the trailer on its back-load version.

If your friend wants to use an advisor, someone must pay for that advisor's service. Whether or not the FEL is 0%, your friend is doing that through the trailer financed by the management fee, which is part of the MER. The real question is not so much what your friend is paying, but whether he/she is getting appropriate value for that money.