Glossary › High-water mark
A high-water mark stipulates that a performance fee is only charged on gains above the previous peak of the unit value.
If a fund’s net asset value falls from 110 to 100 and then rises again to 115, with a high-water mark a performance fee is only charged on the part above 110. Without this rule the manager would be paid again for the recovery from 100 to 110 – for an increase in value investors already had once before.
Some funds reset the mark after a certain period, for instance after three or five years; that weakens the protection. Others calculate the mark per share class or even per investor. The database records whether the prospectus provides for a high-water mark; how exactly it is calculated is on the respective fund page in the section on costs.
Of the 97 active funds with a performance fee, 61 provide for a high-water mark, 25 expressly do not; for 11 it is unclear.
Funds with a performance fee but no high-water mark (alphabetical) · as at 16 Oct 2026