How Big Is the Commission-Based Investment Market? We Added It Up.

If you've heard that front-end load mutual funds are dying, that's mostly true. In 2024, 92% of new money going into long-term mutual funds went to no-load share classes—up from 46% in 2000. But that stat only covers mutual funds. When you zoom out to include annuities, insurance products, and other commission-based investments, the picture changes. Commission-based product sales are still a $700+ billion annual business.

We pulled public data from the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and LIMRA to estimate the full size of the commission-based investment market in 2024, then compared it against fee-based and do-it-yourself alternatives.

Mutual funds: the load-to-no-load shift

Mutual funds come in different “share classes.” Class A shares charge a front-end load—a sales commission of 3% to 5.75% taken out of your investment when you buy. Class C shares charge an ongoing fee instead. No-load shares don't charge any sales commission at all.

According to ICI data, $211 billion went into front-end load (Class A) mutual funds in 2024. That sounds like a lot, but it was only 5% of total long-term mutual fund sales. Compare that to 2000, when Class A purchases were $704 billion—31% of the market.

Source: ICI Research Perspective, “Trends in the Expenses and Fees of Funds, 2024,” Figure S10. Excludes variable annuity subaccounts and retirement plan “R” share classes.

Class B shares are essentially gone. Class C shares are fading. But $2.3 trillion still sits in front-end load funds as legacy holdings—money that was bought with a commission years ago and never moved.

The legacy problem

New sales tell one story. Total assets tell another. Even though almost nobody is buying new Class A shares relative to the overall market, trillions in old money remains parked in them.

Source: ICI Research Perspective, Figure S8.

Load fund assets have barely budged in 25 years—$2.1 trillion in 2000, $2.4 trillion in 2024. Meanwhile, no-load funds grew from $2.2 trillion to $16.2 trillion. The load fund pool isn't shrinking much because market gains on existing holdings roughly offset the $168 billion in annual net outflows. This money is just sitting there, and the advisors who originally sold it are still collecting trailing 12b-1 fees on much of it.

Annuities: where the commissions moved

Here's what the “mutual funds went no-load” story misses: the commission model didn't die. It migrated to insurance products.

Total annuity sales hit a record $434 billion in 2024, according to LIMRA. Nearly all of it is commission-based. The commissions are higher than mutual fund loads, typically 4% to 8% of the amount invested.

Source: LIMRA, “2024 Retail Annuity Sales Grow 13% to a Record $434.1 Billion.”

Fixed indexed annuities (FIAs) are the product to watch. They pay advisors 6% to 8% upfront on a 10-year contract. On a $200,000 purchase, that's $12,000–$16,000 to the advisor. The client doesn't see this cost directly—it's built into the product through surrender charges and caps on returns. The advisor has a strong incentive to recommend these over, say, a Treasury bond earning a similar rate with no strings attached.

Other commission products

A few other categories round out the picture:

• Unit investment trusts (UITs): roughly $70 billion in sales in 2024, typically sold with a 1–4% sales charge. UITs are pre-packaged portfolios that brokerages sell to retail investors.
• Non-traded REITs: about $6 billion in sales, down from peak years when 7% commissions were standard. The commission has dropped to 3% on newer share classes, and sales collapsed accordingly.

The full picture

Adding it all up, here's a rough estimate of commission-based investment product sales through advisors and brokers in 2024, compared against fee-based mutual fund purchases:

Roughly 23% commission, 77% fee-based—for mutual funds and annuities sold through advisors. If you only count mutual funds, it's more like 7% commission. But annuities are the part people miss.

Who buys no-load funds?

You might assume that no-load means “bought without an advisor.” It doesn't. According to ICI survey data, among households that own mutual funds outside of employer retirement plans like 401(k)s:

• 49% buy through investment professionals only
• 18% use both professionals and self-directed accounts
• 20% buy through fund companies or discount brokers only (DIY)
• 13% aren't sure of the source

Source: ICI, “Profile of Mutual Fund Shareholders, 2024,” Figure 7.7 in the 2025 Investment Company Fact Book.

About two-thirds of non-retirement mutual fund households use an advisor. The shift from load to no-load funds didn't mean people stopped using advisors. It meant advisors stopped getting paid through fund commissions and started charging a percentage of your portfolio (an AUM fee) instead. The advisor recommends the same fund, just in a different share class, and bills you separately.

What this means for you

Three things to take away from this data:

Commission-based products aren't going away. They're changing shape. Mutual fund loads are fading, but annuity sales just hit record highs. If your advisor recommends an annuity, that doesn't automatically mean it's wrong for you—but it does mean there's a commission involved, and you should understand how much.

“Fee-based” isn't the same as “fee-only.” Most advisors are dual-registered, meaning they can charge AUM fees and earn commissions. An advisor might put your investment portfolio in no-load index funds (good) and also sell you a $200,000 fixed indexed annuity with a 7% commission (that's $14,000 to them). Both happen in the same relationship. The way to know: check whether they're registered as a broker-dealer representative in addition to being a registered investment adviser.

DIY investors avoid all of this. If you buy index funds through Vanguard, Schwab, or Fidelity, you're paying zero commissions and expense ratios under 0.10%. The trade-off is you're on your own for financial planning, tax strategy, and not panic-selling when the market drops 30%. Whether that trade-off is worth it depends on your situation.