Young entrepreneurs and investors take note – when looking at a mutual fund’s prospectus, the expense ratio remains the most important number on the page. That’s the conclusion of a new study by Morningstar (NASDAQ: MORN), an independent investment research firm.

Morningstar is famous for its “star” ratings, which rate funds on the basis of risk- and load-adjusted returns. Recently, though, the company did a study on how often the rating beat expense ratios as a predictor of returns – and found that more than 50 percent of the time, expense ratios were the better choice.

An expense ratio, briefly, is the percentage of your capital you pay to put your money in a fund. Read full article…