What is total cost reporting and how will it work? When you invest it$$s important to know what fees you are paying. The fees you pay to your firm for its advice and services have an impact on the overall performance of your account. Total cost reporting will make it easier to see embedded fees you pay on your investment funds$\mathrm{.}1.$ What is total cost reporting? Most investments have fees associated with them. Some fees are more obvious, such as the transaction costs when you make a purchase. Other fees, like embedded fees, are harder to see. Total cost reporting enhancements will make it easier to see the fees you pay for prospectus$-$qualified investment funds. All your investment costs would appear in one place $$ starting with enhancements to your annual report on charges and compensation for the year $2026.$ Mutual funds and exchange$-$traded funds $($ETFs$)$ are, together, the most common way Canadians invest in securities$.$ It$$s a good idea for investors to review disclosure documents that you receive when you buy these funds to be aware of embedded fees. But like many people, you may overlook regularly reviewing these documents. And you may not be fully aware of the embedded fees you are paying as an ongoing expense for as long as you own a fund. Total cost reporting enhancements will add the missing piece to the annual report on costs and compensation you receive. It will show the embedded fees you are paying on your mutual fund and ETF investments. It is designed to improve transparency and investor awareness of total fees and costs paid by mutual fund and ETF investors, as well as segregated fund holders. The Canadian Securities Administrators, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization $($CIRO$),$ and the Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators $($CCIR$)$ announced total cost reporting enhancements on April $20,2023.$ It will be implemented over the next three years. Your annual report on charges and compensation, from your dealer and adviser, already includes a lot of information. But total cost reporting enhancements add the price you pay to investment fund companies as an ongoing cost of owing mutual funds and ETFs. There is a distinction between generic cost information in existing disclosures and personalized cost information under total cost reporting. Currently, you must hunt down generic information and then do the math to work out how those percentages translate to dollar costs of the actual investments in your account