Whenever you invest in securities you should always ask for the prospectus and then read that prospectus thoroughly. The Securities and Exchange Commission reviews these documents and requires the fund to disclose the fees. Sometimes they are very complicated but you should be able to compare them. As far as what the broker gets from the sale, you just need to ask him or her. If you don't get a straight answer, I would get another broker.
Many funds are no-lead, meaning there is no up front fee.
As always you will pay management fees but again you can compare those with other funds having the same purpose. The Board, however, recommended voting against them. Although many of these initiatives do not pass, the right of shareholders to express their opinions to the company through the balloting process is very important in public companies. In response to many of these balloting issues many of the companies are becoing much more sensitive to environmental, gender issues, and consumer product safety issues. All our major corporations pay much more attention to these issues than they did 20 years ago because of the rights of shareholders to bring these issues to the attention of the companies through this process.