BOSTON, March 30 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in a closely watched mutual fund case gives investors leeway to challenge fees they consider excessive, but falls short of being a total loss for the $11.5 trillion industry.
The court rejected a lower-court ruling that made it harder for individual shareholders to sue an investment advisory firm for excessive fees.
While the decision still gives fund firms considerable freedom to assess fees — and set fees higher than rivals might charge — it might prove problematic if an adviser charges dramatically higher fees for retail customers than for larger, institutional investors.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote that to face liability, “an investment adviser must charge a fee that is so disproportionately large that it bears no reasonable relationship to the services rendered and could not have been the product of arm’s-length bargaining.”
The case of Jones vs. Harris Associates LP was eagerly anticipated within the fund industry.
