If you are considering investing money into a mutual fund, there are a variety of ways and places to do so. You can invest through a company-sponsored 401(k) plan, through a personal IRA account, or through a brokerage. You can also buy mutual funds through banks, insurance companies, stock brokers, investment advisors, and mutual fund companies.

Banks
Banks are great places for many products, and they will do everything they can to increase the number of products you have with them, but investing in a mutual fund through most banks is not a great idea. In general, most banks charge for access to mutual funds, and they offer a very limited selection of mutual funds to choose from. Mutual funds sold in banks, including money market funds, are not classified as bank deposits. As a result, they are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Personal Investment Advisors/Stock Brokers
A number of investors already have an established relationship with an investment advisor or stock broker. Most of these advisors and brokers want to provide access to mutual funds as well. They want to make it easy for the investor to buy into these other investments. Usually, however, advisors and brokers charge a commission for buying a fund through then, while others collect fees for advice or charge a percentage of the assets under management. It's easy, but the investor pays fees, hurting performance.

Discount Stock Brokers
Utilizing a discount stock broker, such as Charles Schwab, Ameritrade, or E*Trade, to buy mutual funds is a good idea. These discount brokers usually make it easy to purchase funds and allow an investor to get the most out of their account with a broker. Most brokers offer no-cost access to thousands of mutual funds. While it's also easy to setup an account and directly through a mutual fund company, many investors prefer to have all of their accounts in one place, which makes keep accounting and bookkeeping simple.

Many insurance companies offer access to mutual funds. These companies, however, do not offer a broad selection of funds. Most often, their funds are loaded, meaning they charge a high percentage of the total investment as a sales fee, which hurts performance. Their mutual funds are often wrapped up into other products, such as variable annuities, which tend to diminish the advantages that mutual funds offer (like liquidity and low fees). It's best to buy insurance at one specialist and mutual funds at another, despite the seeming convenience.

The first and best place to buy mutual fund shares is through your 401(k) or other similar retirement investment account, usually setup by your employer. The benefits of buying mutual funds this way is that your employer can contribute additional investments on top of yours, often matching a certain percentage of the amount you put in. Also, though restricted by the number of funds you can invest in, the paperwork and auto-investment are set up by your employer.

Another great place to buy a mutual fund is directly through the mutual fund company you decide to setup an account with. It's easy to set up a retirement or investment account and to choose from hundreds of possible funds. Mutual fund companies also provide a number of research and retirement tools, which can help direct your investment, depending upon your needs.

The least expensive way to buy mutual funds is to deal directly with a 100% no-load mutual fund company. If there's a fund that's interesting, get the prospectus, which details the funds strategy, management, performance, and fees, if any. With true no-load funds there are no sales charges, exit fees, or other charges. A load fund, on the other hand, charges a sales fee, usually a percentage of the investment, plus other charges. These sales charges are deducted directly from the initial investment and later deposits. With the large number of available mutual funds, most people should buy directly from a fund company and purchase no-load funds or low-load funds, which charge generally below a 3% sales fee).

Some of the top mutual fund companies:

The Vanguard Group

http://www.vanguard.com

Fidelity Funds

http://www.fidelity.com

American Funds

http://www.americanfunds.com

Nuveen Funds

http://www.nuveen.com

T. Rowe Price

http://www.troweprice.com

Alliance Bernstein Funds

http://www.bernstein.com

Franklin Templeton Funds

http://www.franklintempleton.com

For a comprehensive list of mutual fund companies, their individual funds as well as fund performance, visit Morningstar. http://www.morningstar.com.

It's important to know that mutual funds are not guaranteed or insured by the FDIC or any other government agency — even if purchased through a bank and the fund carries the bank's name. You can lose money investing in mutual funds. Last year's high returns are not an indicator of what is to come.