A load is the fee or sales charge that an investor has to pay to buy certain mutual funds. Simply you can say load is a sales commission charged by mutual fund on the purchase or sale of securities by investors. Not all mutual funds have loads. Funds without loads are called No load mutual funds.

Brokers charge front-end loads when you purchase the securities. They fix a specific percentage of front-end load and such amount is deducted from your fund when you make investment. The value of the investment is then reduced by the amount of the load.

Funds that have back-end loads don’t charge any fee at time of purchase of shares but when you sell your shares, you have to pay some fee. Back-end load is a sales commission that a mutual fund company charges at the time of redemption of your shares. In level load funds no sales charge is paid when buying the shares, but a back-end load may be charged if the shares purchased are sold within a year.

Mutual fund charge a certain percentage on fund’s assets as management fees. Such type of fee is charged by company to pay for the management services like salaries of the fund's managers and analysts etc, used to run the fund. Management fees usually do not amount to more than one percent of the investment.

Most experienced investors don't buy full-load mutual funds. There is no evidence that load funds perform better than no-load funds. You, as the investor, are paying for the research and due diligence of the broker when you pay a load. Once you become more aware and gain expertise, there is no need of a broker’s services.