Investment Fee Impact Calculator

Model the combined drag of platform, fund and transaction fees on long-term returns.

About Investment Fee Impact Calculator

Fees at different layers add rather than compound against each other, but their effect on the portfolio compounds. Expressing the total as a share of growth rather than of final value shows how much of your gain the charges took. Two layers of apparently modest fees routinely consume a quarter or more of the growth over a working lifetime.

Formula

Investment Fee Impact

Net return = gross return − platform fee − fund fee; value compounds at the net rate

combined fee: All annual charges added together, since each is levied on the whole balance

Worked example

With the default values below, Investment Fee Impact Calculator returns Total Cost of All Fees of $113,847.00. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Portfolio valueminimum 0: 150,000
Gross annual returnaccepts -20–50 %: 7.5 %
Platform or custody feeaccepts 0–5 %: 0.35 %
Fund management feeaccepts 0–5 %: 0.22 %
Years heldaccepts 1–60 years: 25 years

Results

Total Cost of All Fees: $113,847.00
Combined Annual Fee: 0.570%
Net Annual Return: 6.930%
Final Value After Fees: $800,903.94
Share of Growth Lost to Fees: 14.89%

Step by step

1Values used
2Investment Fee Impact
3Total Cost of All Fees= 113,847.00
4Combined Annual Fee= 0.570
5Net Annual Return= 6.930
6Final Value After Fees= 800,903.94
7Share of Growth Lost to Fees= 14.89

Assumptions and limits

The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
In particular, this calculator does not take inflation or tax into account.
Figures are rounded for display to 3 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
This is an estimate for general information and not professional financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer for the limits that apply to this kind of calculator.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Investment Fee Impact calculated?

Net return = gross return − platform fee − fund fee; value compounds at the net rate Fees at different layers add rather than compound against each other, but their effect on the portfolio compounds. Expressing the total as a share of growth rather than of final value shows how much of your gain the charges took.

Why does Investment Fee Impact matter?

Two layers of apparently modest fees routinely consume a quarter or more of the growth over a working lifetime.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 5 inputs: Portfolio value, Gross annual return, Platform or custody fee, Fund management fee, Years held. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.