The Mutual Fund Industry by Jack Bogle, from Mr. Theodosis
"The Mutual Fund Industry in 2003: Back to the Future", remarks by John C. Bogle, founder and former chairman of The Vanguard Group
We are all familiar with the impressive equity returns over the last century but I haven't seen any estimates for historical management fees for index funds. (Obviously not as important the last 50 years with dedicated index funds). I came across this article by Bogle that says the first mutual fund, Massachusetts investment trust 'MIT' back in 1924 had 3.2% management fee per annum. By 1950 the fee had gone down to .3% before going up again and today is sitting at the same spot - 33bps.