Bond index mutual funds had an average expense ratio of 0.35percentt.
By contrast, Vanguard calculated that the fund industry's average expense ratio increased to 1.24percentt from 1.21percentt.
For example, in 2011, the institute found that the simple average expense ratio of equity funds was 143 basis points, while the average expense ratio that equity fund shareholders actually paid was 79 basis points.
A portfolio with those allocations that used iShares E.T.F.'s from Barclays would have an average expense ratio of just 0.24percentt, Mr. Steinhilber said.
The average expense ratio of the 18 TIPS funds tracked by Morningstar is 0.51percentt of assets, which is competitive with other bond fund categories.
The average expense ratio for all exchange-traded funds is 0.58percentt, or $5.80 for each $1,000 invested, according to Morningstar.
In 2001, the average expense ratio for exchange-traded stock funds was 0.48percentt, according to Morningstar Inc., compared with 0.89percentt for traditional stock index funds.
By comparison, the average expense ratio is 0.80percentt for an index mutual fund and 1.26percentt for an actively managed mutual fund.
I counted 1,084 actively managed funds, including their various share classes, with an average expense ratio of 1.1percentt a year.
For comparison purposes, for example, you'd need to know that the average expense ratio in mutual funds was around 1.27 percent of the total invested, according to Demos.
By contrast, the average expense ratio of a large-cap index fund -- which simply buys and holds all the stocks that compose a market index like the S.&P.
