MER

The MER is the Canadian disclosure that rolls several fund costs into one number: the management fee paid to the fund manager, operating expenses (custody, audit, legal, recordkeeping), and the Canadian sales tax applied to those fees. It's quoted as an annual percentage of the fund's assets and is deducted incrementally from the fund's NAV, not billed separately.

An MER of 0.25% on a $50,000 position costs roughly $125 per year — paid invisibly through a slightly lower unit price than the fund's holdings would produce gross of fees. Compounded over decades, the cost is larger than the trailing percentage suggests, because the drag applies to a growing balance.

Broad passive index ETFs in Canada typically price their MER in the 0.05%-0.25% range. Specialized, active, or thematic funds run 0.40%-2.00%. Trading-commission costs (brokerage) sit outside the MER; so does HST applied at the investor level in some registered accounts.