Glossary · Billing and revenue

Total cost of ownership

Total cost of ownership is the complete cost a client bears — advisory fee, the weighted average expense ratio of holdings, platform or program fees, and any other charges — expressed together.

Each component is individually disclosed somewhere. The sum almost never is, and the sum is what the client actually pays.

Shown properly it appears twice: as a percentage for comparison and in dollars at the client's actual account size, because one of those is abstract and the other is not.

Read more: What does the client actually pay? →