A Y-stock is an institutional class of stocks offered in open-end mutual funds with a high minimum investment, typically $25,000 or more.
These promotions offer limited or waived per-load fees or a lower comparative total annual fee.
Y-stocks are not associated with brokerage fees and generally do not pay any distribution or 12b-1 fees from the fund’s expenses, allowing their expense ratios to be generally lower than other stock classes.
Although Y-shares are usually reserved for institutional investors, in some cases they may allow investment from pension plan investors.
Funds without pension stock classes may allow pooled Y-share investments from pension plans that collectively seek to invest in the fund.