Expense ratios and fees

A CEF's total expense ratio combines the management fee, other operating expenses (administration, custody, legal, listing), and — for leveraged funds — the interest or preferred dividends paid on the leverage. The fee table in the fund's registration statement breaks these out as a percentage of net assets attributable to common shares.

The denominator problem

Management fees are often charged on managed assets (including leverage), while the expense ratio is expressed on common net assets. A 1.0% fee on managed assets for a 30%-leveraged fund is roughly 1.43% of common net assets. When you compare funds, compare percentages on the same basis and check whether interest expense is included. Both facts are shown next to every expense figure here.

Where a sponsor waives part of its fee, the net expense ratio is what shareholders currently pay; the gross figure is what they will pay if the waiver ends. Waivers usually have an expiry date.

A note on our fee data

Expense components on this site come from the Inline XBRL data that funds tag in their SEC filings. Funds that have not filed a tagged N-2 or annual report since the 2022 tagging requirement show “Not reported” here; their fee table is still linked from the Documents tab.