"Griping they "advertise too much" is a rather odd way to assess if someone is legit or not, frankly. By this measure, we should all be suspicious of Coca Cola, GE, and by the way, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, eTrade, the list goes on. These are perfectly fine firms that spend a lot on marketing"

The difference between an investment company and a consumer product/service company is that for the latter, we are good consumers and through market competition, can select from the company who provides the best product/service for the $ spent.How much they spend on marketing/cost of goods/employee compensation/electricity, etc is of no concern to us.

 In the former, the investment company is constrained by market uncertainty...that is, the investment manager (the one making the decisions on which security to buy or sell) does not know what the market will be doing any more than anyone else does....and spending more on marketing, market research, hiring smarter people, making fancier prospectii or holding elaborate seminars will NOT improve his investment returns. Instead, these added expenses, beyond a fundamental level, will be a drain on the return of the investments. In other words, if MF ABC has an annualized total return of 8%, no amount of added marketing cost would increase this....the market provides what the market provides. Instead, added expenses, from the standpoint of the investor, will simply reduce the return.

BruceM