Load-waived ratings and statistics better reflect the investor experience for those individuals who do not pay a fund’s front-end sales load, such as retirement-plan participants. The load-waived rating supplements the Morningstar Rating™ for the original A share class, where all load-adjusted measures reflect the maximum front load.
Load-waived A shares are displayed and treated like a separate share class, and most data are the same between the original A share and the load-waived share. The statistics that are different include load-adjusted measures, such as the Morningstar Rating, Morningstar risk-adjusted return, Morningstar risk, Morningstar return, and after-tax return, along with percentile ranks based on these measures.
To be eligible for load-waived ratings and returns, the fund must be an A share class, must have a front load, and must be domiciled in the United States.
Load-waived shares are denoted by an "LW" after the fund name. FINRA approved disclosures do appear with Load-Waived A Shares Investment Detail Reports. The disclosure statement displays the risk and return profiles of the Load-Waived A share in comparison with the regular A share with some additional information about who the Load-Waived A share applies to.
References
For more information, see the press release and fact sheet on Morningstar's corporate Web site.