The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that a just-released study commissioned by the Canadian Securities Administrators shows how mutual fund and ETF fees have changed. The Globe's Rob Carrick writes that on an asset-weighted basis, giving more emphasis to bigger funds, the average change in management expense ratios was a decline of 0.13 percentage point from 2013 to 2016 and 0.16 percentage point from 2017 to 2020. For exchange-traded funds, the average MER change was a decline of 0.03 point from 2013 to 2016 and 0.04 point from 2017 to 2020. The lower decline for ETFs results from the fact that they already have comparatively smaller fees. Polls show there is still some uncertainty about fees investors pay and what precisely is covered and not covered by the new fee disclosure rules. The ETF version of the balanced fund is called the asset allocation fund. About $25-billion has been invested in these funds since they were popularized about six years ago, which is small but still encouraging. Even if you pay a commission to a broker to buy an asset allocation, the low MER still means significant savings. Note that mutual fund fees include a segment to cover advice and service; ETFs are self-serve.