Investment Fee Analysis & Cost Comparison Form

Make Smarter Investment Decisions with Transparent Fee Analysis

Investment fees can significantly erode your returns over time, yet many investors struggle to understand the true cost of their portfolio. Whether you're a financial advisor helping clients evaluate options or an individual investor trying to compare funds, having a clear breakdown of all associated costs is essential for making informed decisions.

This Investment Fee Analysis & Cost Comparison Form template from Paperform helps you systematically capture and calculate the total cost of ownership for investment portfolios, including expense ratios, trading costs, advisory fees, and other hidden charges that impact long-term returns.

Who This Template Is For

This investment cost comparison form is designed for:

• Financial advisors and wealth managers who need to demonstrate fee transparency and help clients understand investment costs
• Investment consultants comparing portfolio options for institutional or individual clients
• Portfolio managers conducting cost-benefit analysis for different investment strategies
• Individual investors evaluating mutual funds, ETFs, index funds, and managed accounts
• Financial planners preparing comprehensive fee disclosures for client reviews
• RIAs and broker-dealers meeting fiduciary obligations around fee transparency

Key Features of This Investment Fee Template

Built with Paperform's calculation engine and professional design capabilities, this template includes:

• Investment portfolio details - Capture fund names, ticker symbols, asset allocation, and investment amounts
• Expense ratio breakdown - Document management fees, 12b-1 fees, and other fund operating expenses
• Trading cost analysis - Account for brokerage commissions, bid-ask spreads, and transaction fees
• Advisory and wrap fees - Include financial advisor fees and account maintenance charges
• Tax cost considerations - Factor in tax efficiency and potential capital gains implications
• Automatic total cost calculation - Real-time computation of total cost of ownership as a percentage and dollar amount
• Multi-year projection - Show cumulative fee impact over 1, 5, 10, and 20-year periods
• Comparison functionality - Side-by-side analysis of multiple investment options

The form uses Paperform's built-in calculation fields to automatically compute total costs, helping you visualize the long-term impact of seemingly small percentage differences in fees.

Why Investment Fee Transparency Matters

Studies consistently show that lower-cost investments tend to outperform higher-cost alternatives over time. A seemingly small 1% difference in annual fees can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars over a career of investing. This template helps make those abstract concepts concrete by showing exact dollar amounts and projections.

For financial advisors, fee transparency isn't just good practice—it's often a regulatory requirement. This form helps you document your fee analysis process and provides clients with clear, comprehensive cost breakdowns that build trust and demonstrate your fiduciary commitment.

Streamline Your Investment Analysis Workflow

Paperform makes it easy to customize this template to match your specific investment analysis process. Use conditional logic to show different fee categories based on investment type (mutual funds vs. ETFs vs. separately managed accounts), adjust calculations for different account sizes, and create custom success pages with personalized recommendations.

Integrate with your existing tools: Connect this form to your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) to track client fee reviews, sync data to Google Sheets or Airtable for portfolio-wide analysis, or trigger follow-up workflows in Stepper to automatically schedule client meetings when high-cost investments are identified.

Automate your compliance process: Use Papersign to send fee disclosure agreements for eSignature after completing the analysis, creating a clear audit trail that demonstrates your commitment to transparency and client education.

Professional Design That Builds Client Confidence

Unlike spreadsheets or generic calculators, this Paperform template presents as a polished, branded tool that reinforces your professional image. Customize fonts, colors, and add your firm's logo to create a seamless client experience. The clean, user-friendly interface makes complex fee concepts accessible without overwhelming your clients.

The form can be embedded on your website, shared via a custom link, or even placed on your own domain for a fully white-labeled experience.

Getting Started with Investment Fee Analysis

This template works out of the box but can be easily customized to match your specific investment philosophy and client needs. Add fields for specific fund families you commonly recommend, include benchmarks for "reasonable" fees in different asset classes, or create scoring systems that flag high-cost investments for immediate review.

Whether you're conducting annual portfolio reviews, preparing for new client onboarding, or responding to fee-related questions, this Investment Fee Analysis Form gives you a systematic, professional way to demonstrate value and build trust through transparency.

Paperform is trusted by over 500,000 teams worldwide and is SOC2 Type II compliant, ensuring your client data remains secure. With Paperform's calculation engine, you can build sophisticated financial tools without writing a single line of code—putting the power of fee analysis directly in the hands of advisors and investors who need it most.