Parnassus - Costs of Investing

The Costs of Investing

Before investing in a mutual fund, an investor should ask how much it costs, just like you would with any other good or service. All the Parnassus Funds are no-load funds, meaning there's no up-front sales charge on our funds. Mutual funds charge ongoing expenses, also known as an expense ratio, to pay for their operating expenses, such as investment advisory services, recordkeeping, and even small things like postage.

At Parnassus, we try to keep each fund's expense ratio below the industry average for its respective category.

Parnassus Funds Expense Ratios


Fund Name	Gross Expense Ratio	Net Expense Ratio¹	Category Average²
Parnassus Fund	1.00%	0.99%	1.46%
Equity Income Fund Investor Shares	1.00%	1.00%	1.38%
Equity Income Fund Institutional Shares	0.78%	0.78%	1.38%
Mid-Cap Fund	1.73%	1.20%	1.46%
Small-Cap Fund	1.47%	1.20%	1.46%
Workplace Fund	1.36%	1.20%	1.46%
Fixed Income Fund	0.88%	0.76%	1.08%

Parnassus Funds Performance


Fund Name	Year to Date as of 7/28/10	Annualized Returns as of 6/30/10
Fund Name	Year to Date as of 7/28/10	1 year	3 years	5 years	10 years	Since Inception*
Parnassus Fund	(0.09)%	17.19%	(4.48)%	2.72%	(1.63)%	8.65%
Equity Income Fund Investor Shares	(1.47)%	13.51%	(1.89)%	4.43%	4.65%	9.21%
Equity Income Fund Institutional Shares	(1.34)%	13.73%	(1.67)%	4.63%	4.75%	3.03%
Mid-Cap Fund	1.90%	21.48%	(3.98)%	2.30%	NA	2.53%
Small-Cap Fund	8.82%	28.57%	0.08%	5.94%	NA	6.25%
Workplace Fund	(2.67)%	16.48%	0.61%	5.14%	NA	5.09%
Fixed Income Fund	5.88%	10.19%	6.84%	5.93%	6.47%	6.14%

Performance data quoted represent past performance and are no guarantee of future returns. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Investment return and principal will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.
Prior to May 1, 2004, the Parnassus Fund charged a sales load of a maximum of 3.5%, which is not reflected in the total return figures.
Prior to March 31, 1998, the Parnassus Equity Income Fund was a balanced fund.

¹ As described in Fund's current prospectus dated May 1, 2010, Parnassus Investments has contractually agreed to limit the total operating expenses to 0.99%, 1.20%, 1.20%, 1.20%, 0.99%, 0.78% and 0.87% of net assets, exclusive of acquired fund fees, through May 1, 2011 for Parnassus Fund, Parnassus Workplace Fund, Parnassus Small-Cap Fund, Parnassus Mid-Cap Fund, Parnassus Equity Income Fund Investor Shares, Parnassus Equity Income Fund Institutional Shares and Parnassus Fixed-Income Fund respectively. This limitation may be continued indefinitely by the Adviser on year-to-year basis.

² The fund category benchmarks shown are the mean total expense ratios of each fund's peer group as classified by Lipper as of April 30, 2010. Lipper's data and analyses are for informational purposes only, and do not constitute investment advice or an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security of any entity in any jurisdiction.

^* Parnassus Fund's commencement date is December 31, 1984. The Parnassus Equity Income Fund's and Parnassus Fixed-Income Fund's commencement date is August 31, 1992. The Parnassus Workplace Fund's, Parnassus Small-Cap Fund's, and Parnassus Mid-Cap Fund's commencement date is April 29, 2005. The Parnassus Equity Income Fund's Institutional Shares' commencement date is April 28, 2006. Performance shown prior to the inception of the Institutional Shares reflects the performance of the Parnassus Equity Income Fund-Investor Shares and includes expenses that are not applicable to and are higher than those of the Institutional Shares.