Often not, and the more useful answer is that some of them cannot be known in advance at all.
The fee printed most prominently on a proposal may not capture everything around the investment. Buying and selling assets creates transaction costs. Some services attract VAT. Certain products or markets bring brokerage, taxes, spreads or other charges of their own.
Several of these genuinely resist prediction. Transaction costs move with trading activity and market conditions. VAT treatment depends on the nature of the fee. Different measures include some expenses and exclude others. Which is why a cost figure is worth very little without a definition and a date attached to it, rather than just a percentage.
One warning before you start adding things up. Do not total every number in every document without checking for overlap, because a fund's total investment charge may already include some of what you are about to add again. The question worth answering is which costs ultimately reduce your contribution, your investment value or your return, and how the provider's own disclosure brings them together.
Try this now
Take one quotation and circle every use of “excluding”, “including”, “estimated” and “VAT”. Then write a short list of the variable or event-based costs that sit outside the headline rate.
Ask your advisor
- Does the total illustration include VAT and expected transaction costs?
- Which charges could vary from the amount shown?
- Are any figures counted inside another disclosed total?
Tax and product rules can change. Confirm current treatment for the exact service and product before relying on an estimate.