Well, the crop of proxies coming out from some major financial services companies provides some details on what some of those nuisance fees are paying for: perks for top executives. A quick skim of the footnotes in the proxy for Mellon Financial (MEL), whose brands include mutual fund giant Dreyfus Funds and which is in the process of merging with the Bank of New York (BK), provides a long list of perks heretofore unknown to Mellon’s investors (or customers). Highlights include $194 for Chairman and CEO Robert Kelly’s use of the corporate jet to ferry him between Pittsburgh and North Carolina, $94K on a car and driver, $66K on his country club membership and another $52K spent to provide him with financial planning services (hopefully, he used someone at his own company).

Why are bank/brokerage fees so high? [footnoted .org]