Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms: contingent deferred sales load
contingent deferred sales load
sales charge levied by a mutual fund if a customer sells fund shares within a specified number of years. Instead of charging a traditional front-end load of 5%, for example, a brokerage firm may offer the same fund with a contingent deferred sales load. Customers who sell the fund within the first year pay a 5% load. In the second year, the charge would be 4%. Each year the charge declines by one percentage point until there is no fee for selling fund shares after the fifth year. Also called back-end load.
