What is the average commission that a broker gets for mutual funds?

For a front-end loaded fund you must consider the load, and dealer reallowance.

The load is the amount the buyer is charged, depends on the type of fund. Equity funds typically 4.75-5.75%, bond funds 3.75-4.5%. There are also break points set by the fund, the more you buy, the lower the front end load drops.

Dealer reallowance is how much of the total front end load the broker actually gets.

In most cases your broker will get a comission of 3-4.75% in the form of a comission, even though the client may be charged more than that.

On a loaded fund: 4.75-5.75%

Usually broker fees are listed as "load" (front load when buying and back load when selling) on mutual fund websites like Morningstar. You can check out the load for each fund on morningstar or yahoo.

Here is a primer on Mutual fund selection: http://creating-wealth.blogspot.com/2007...

This is not a simple answer if I understand you correctly.

The rule of thumb is that a higher turnover rate means smaller returns (not significantly smaller but smaller none the less) because the money managers are making more trades and hence brokers are getting paid more.

These brokerage commissions are NOT included in a fund's expense ratio which is the cost of the fund or in other words strictly the money managers compensation. You do not however get a separate bill for these costs as they are included in the NAV.

The funds prospectus discusses the fund's objectives and investing style and you as a fund shareowner have no control on the turnover rate. Also you have no idea which brokers the fund uses. Basically you are abstracted from the day to day trading and its associated fees, commissions, etc. when you invest in a mutual fund. You can always ask these questions of your fund company, will they answer, I do not know?

BTW, this applies to any fund type: load, no load, NTF fund, bond, stock, international, sector, even index, etc.

My $0.02