29% of Investors With Under $50,000 Think They Pay No Investing Fees. Among Those With $250,000 or More, It’s 13%

Almost every investment costs something, even when no bill ever shows up. Fund expenses come out of a fund’s returns before your balance updates, and advisory fees are often taken straight from the account. Because nothing arrives in the mail, plenty of investors believe they pay nothing at all. The latest FINRA survey data shows which investors are most likely to think that.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation asked investors about the fees on their non-retirement accounts in its NFCS Investor Survey, and published the results in 2025. Among people with less than $50,000 invested, 29% said they don’t pay any fees. Among those with $250,000 or more in an investment portfolio, only 13% said the same.

The survey reached 2,861 U.S. adults who hold investments outside retirement accounts, and it ran from July to December 2024. All the answers are self-reported, so the numbers show what investors believe they pay. Nobody checked them against account statements.

Ranking Who Believes Investing Costs Nothing

Below, the survey’s portfolio-size and age groups rank by the share who think they pay no fees on their non-retirement investments:

1. Portfolios under $50,000: 29%
2. Ages 18 to 34: 25%
3. Among those 55 and older: 19%
4. Ages 35 to 54: 18%
5. Portfolios of $50,000 to $250,000: 15%
6. Portfolios of $250,000 or more: 13%

Portfolio size separates the groups more sharply than age does. The youngest investors stand out a bit, but the 35-to-54 group and the 55-plus group are nearly tied. Small accounts are where the belief really clusters. One likely reason is that many people with modest balances trade on commission-free apps. That got rid of the cost people could actually see, while the fees built into funds keep running with no bill.

Fund fees cause the most confusion. Among mutual fund and ETF owners, 41% say they don’t pay fund fees or expenses, and another 13% don’t know. Nearly every fund charges a yearly expense, so many of those owners are paying a cost they don’t understand.

What Most Investors Think They Pay

Across all investors, the most common answer came from 36% of investors, who believe they pay less than 1% of assets a year. Another 20% think they pay no fees at all, and 18% don’t know what they pay. That’s a big group making long-term decisions without a clear view of one of the few costs they can control.

Why a Small Fee Gap Grows Large by Retirement

Fees come out every single year, and they compound right alongside returns. Here’s an example built on simple assumptions: a $100,000 portfolio earning 7% a year before costs and held for 20 years. With yearly fees of 0.1%, that portfolio grows to about $379,800. With fees of 1%, it ends up near $320,700. The two portfolios earned the same market returns. The only difference is what got skimmed off each year.

The gap comes to about $59,100, paid out over two decades without a single bill. A recent MarketWatch piece on adviser fees summed it up: “If you don’t know your total cost, then you don’t know your total return.” Our coverage of hidden ETF costs goes further into how fund-level expenses add up.

Where Each Fee Hides on Statements and Fund Documents

Most investment costs fall into four categories. Each one shows up in a different place.

• Expense ratios. This is the yearly percentage a fund charges to run itself, taken out of the fund’s assets. You’ll find it in the prospectus fee table as total annual fund operating expenses. One index ETF prospectus lists 0.18%, which works out to $18 in the first year on a $10,000 investment.
• Advisory fees. This is what a financial adviser charges to manage your money, usually a percentage of your assets. It shows up as a deduction on account statements and in the adviser’s Form ADV brochure.
• Trading costs. These are commissions and other charges to buy or sell. Fund prospectuses note that brokerage commissions aren’t included in the fee table, so check your trade confirmations.
• Account fees. These cover maintenance, transfers, inactivity, and paper statements. They’re listed in the brokerage’s fee schedule and appear as line items on monthly statements.

Find This One Number This Week

Add up your total yearly fees across every account, in dollars. A fee quoted as a fraction of a percent sounds tiny and is easy to ignore. Turning each fee into a dollar amount and then adding them up gives you a figure you can compare with your returns. The survey suggests many smaller and younger investors would be surprised by the total. If you’re among the 29% with smaller portfolios who think they pay nothing, you have the most to gain from checking.

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