<prompt> Human: In other words, if I am paying 1.5 fees for a fund, will the expected return on that fund be greater than the fund that has .5 fees? I read article after article that says choose funds with lesser fees because the fees reduce your total return. However, these articles assume that each hypothetical fund will have the same return no matter their fees. My thinking is that for riskier funds, higher fees might be justified because their expected growht is higher than safer funds. So, is paying higher fees really a scam, or are higher fees historically related to higher returns i.e., a greater net return compared to lower fee funds?  <response>: There may be a correlation between high fund management fees and strong past performance. Strong past performance would justify the survival of an expensive fund in the eyes of some. But since you are concerned about future performance and past performance is not at all indicative of future returns, you should make every attempt to avoid high fee funds. 