balance transfer credit cards
    Balance transfer credit cards      Site disclaimer      Email Us    
Balance Transfer to American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Card


American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card
Intro APR: n/a

 Issuer: American Express
The Preferred Rewards Gold Card takes you places. And shows you’ve arrived.
Enjoy Gold Card benefits and access while you earn travel rewards fast.

YOUR FIRST YEAR IS FEE-FREE with the American Express® Preferred Gold Rewards Card
Get 10,000 Membership Rewards points redeemable for Rewards right away2

  • The Membership Rewards® program —a fast, flexible rewards program that lets you redeem travel rewards on over 21 airlines
  • Gold Card Events—exclusive access to tickets for select concerts, shows, major sporting events, and more in cities nationwide4
  • Global Assist® Plus Hotline5, free shipping and handling6, and many more benefits included





Back to the category menu

Apply for American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Card

Sales Charge/Service Fee/Front-End Load

Whatever the term is, they all refer to the charges you pay when you invest in a unit trust. The bulk of money goes to the marketing and distribution of the fund. Generally, sales charges are reflected in the difference between the buying (bid) and selling (offer) prices and are stated as a percentage of the fund's net asset value (NAV).

A few funds in the market state the sales charges as a percentage of the selling price; in this case, you're paying more comparatively as the selling price is higher than the NAV in a front-end load fund.

Currently, average front-end load for equity funds is 5%. For bond, fixed income and money market funds usually come with a small front-end load or none at all, or an exit fee.

Back End Loads/Exit Fees/Repurchase Charge

Back-end loads or exit fees are charged when you redeem your units in the fund. In this case, the buying price is lower than the NAV.

Some back-end loads, typically those of bond funds are charged if you redeem your units before a specified period - the fee is scaled down progressively the longer you hold on to the fund.

The advantage of a back-end load is that all your money goes to work immediately. However, if the exit fee is levied against the NAV when you sell (as opposed to the original invested amount) and if you have invested for capital gains rather than income distribution, part of your profits is eaten up as well.

Management Fees

The fund company makes money from the management fees. Cited as a percentage of the fund's assets, the annual management fee is accrued daily and paid out of the fund.

Management fees for equity-oriented funds tend to be higher than those for fixed income funds. Distributors may get a small percentage of the annual management fee, referred to as a trailer fee. US personal finance magazine Kiplinger says management fees for US mutual funds are typically 1% and above.

However, management fees for passively managed funds like index-linked funds should be lower.

Trustee Fees

Trustees act as custodians of the fund and their job is to safeguard the interest of the investors. To do this, they're paid a trustee's fee, which is accrued daily. For an equity fund, the trustee's fee is typically 0.08% to 0.2% per annum.

Switching Fees

Given the volatility in markets, rebalancing is the latest investing mantra. Rebalancing involves adjusting the asset allocation in a portfolio. If you rebalance with funds within the same unit trust management company, you may incur switching fees.

Switching between funds involves the transfer of investment from one fund to another. When 'free' switches are offered, no fee will be charged for switching from one fund to another.

However, sales charges or front-end fees will still apply in some cases. For example, you'll be charged this fee when you buy into a no-load bond fund and then switch to an equity fund with a sales charge of 5%. If there's an upfront fee for both fixed income and equity funds, check whether you'll be charged the difference in up-front fees, or if you're buying at the fund's selling price and paying the whole sales charge again.

Typically, if you switch between equity funds, you'll not incur the upfront fee again as most equity funds are priced similarly. If you switch from an equity fund to a no-load bond fund, there'll also be no applicable sales charges and you buy at the NAV.

Once you exhaust the number of free switches offered in one year, there's often a switching fee, which is usually charged as 1% of the repurchase proceeds or in the form of a flat fee.

Management Expense Ratio (MER)

The MER is an indication of the costs of managing the fund. All fees incurred and deducted from the fund, including annual management fees, trustee fees, audit fees, commissions paid to brokers and printing costs; are all expressed as a percentage of the fund's net assets. MERs are important because these expenses can continue long after the up-front fee has been paid.

However, MERs can vary from company to company and category of funds. Larger funds can have lower MERs as economies of scale are achieved. Index funds should also have MERs that are lower than those of their actively managed peers' as less research is required of them; for instance, in the US, the Vanguard S&P Index Fund which has a hefty $78 billion under management, has a total expense ratio of only 0.18%.


  • Transfer your balance to American Express® Preferred Rewards Gold Card

  • Assume that an older, wealthy widow(er)or divorced individual has a substantial amount in tax-deferred retirement plans such as defined contribution pension plans, 401k plans, 403b plans, and traditional IRAs. The widow(er) wants to leave the retirement plans to his or her children.

    The problem is that when the children inherit the tax-deferred retirement plans and take distributions from them, the distributions are fully taxable to the children. The retirement plans are income in respect of a decedent (known as IRD), which is taxable. In addition, the balances in the retirement plans are fully included in the decedent's gross estate for estate tax purposes.

    If the individual were married rather than being a widow(er)or a divorced individual, usually the individual would want to leave the money in the retirement plans to his or her spouse. In that case, the surviving spouse could transfer the money into his or her own IRA and treat the account as his or her own. The surviving spouse would avoid income tax on the money in the decedent's tax-deferred retirement plans. The bequest would also qualify for the unlimited marital deduction for estate tax purposes.

    Is there any way to achieve the parent's goal of having enough money to pay living expenses and yet leave a good inheritance to the children? The answer is yes if the older, wealthy parent is insurable for life insurance purposes.

    Here is how the solution would work. The parent obtains a life insurance policy large enough to replace the balances in all the tax-deferred retirement plans. However, the parent is not the owner of the life insurance. The parent forms an irrevocable life insurance trust that has a "Crummey Powers" clause, and the irrevocable life insurance trust owns the life insurance policy. This technique will keep the value of the life insurance out of the decedent's gross estate.

    A "Crummey Powers" clause gets its name from a court case. It has to do with whether a gift is subject to gift tax. Gifts that are less than the annual exclusion amount are exempt from gift tax as long as the gift is a present interest in property. A "Crummey Powers" clause allows the beneficiary of a life insurance trust the right to withdraw gifts made to the trust that the donor intends to pay for life insurance premiums. As long as the beneficiary has the right to withdraw the donation under the "Crummey Powers" clause, it is a gift of a present interest in property.

    Assume that the beneficiary does not exercise the right to withdraw the donation. The irrevocable life insurance trust will use the donation by the parent to pay the premiums on the life insurance.

    Where does the parent obtain the money to donate the money to the trust to pay the life insurance premiums? The parent converts the balances in the retirement plans into a life annuity. Therefore, the parent receives payments for life and uses part of them to pay the insurance premiums through the trust. At the parent's death, the annuity is worth zero. Therefore, the children do not have any income in respect of a decedent. Nothing from the annuity is included in the gross estate.

    The life insurance company pays the children the proceeds of the life insurance policy. The proceeds of life insurance on account of the death of the insured are not subject to income tax. They are not subject to estate tax because the decedent did not own the policy.

    This plan allows the parent to have an income stream during life from the annuity. The annuity payments would be fully taxable unless the individual has any basis in the annuity. The individual will need to use other income tax planning techniques to reduce the income tax resulting from the annuity payments.

    This strategy converts amounts that would be subject to income tax and estate tax to amounts that are not subject to income tax or estate tax in the hands of the children. This strategy requires the services of a tax advisor, an attorney, and a life insurance agent. They all must be competent and exercise great care in implementing the strategy. However, if done correctly, this strategy can result in substantial tax savings. It also gives the parent more peace of mind knowing that the children will not have to pay taxes on the life insurance.


  • Raise your credit score with a help of Credit-Rocket! Read the Chase credit card reviews
  • Tired of high charges? Find the best database for credit cards! Read the fine print and find the Annual Percentage Rate (APR). This is the interest rate the companies charge you if you carry a balance. You want the lowest rate possible; as each percentage point drop will save you money on the months you have an outstanding balance.