Janus Capital is preparing to add performance-based advisory fees to some of its funds. The Denver-based fund firm revealed its plans in SEC filings that were picked up on Monday by the Wall Street Journal. The fees would be added to 13 of the groups 59 funds.

According to the paper, the funds' trustees pushed for the change that would link the advisory fee charged by Janus to the performance of the funds against their benchmarks.

Fees have been a key issue at the fund groups targeted by Eliot Spitzer in his market-timing and late-trading probes. Janus was among the fund firms that settled charges brought by the New York attorney general and other regulators. As part of those settlements, the fund firms have typically agreed to hire an independent consultant to look at fees.

The article notes that Janus' trustees worked with their outside fee consultant for more than a year on the issue.

"The trustees believe the proposed performance-based fees further align the interest of the investment adviser with fund shareholders," the WSJ quotes independent chair Dennis Mullen as saying. "Both the trustees and Janus wanted to apply the performance fee structure to a significant portion of the funds initially, but wanted some experience with that structure before extending it to more funds," he said.

The funds will tie 15 basis points of Janus' compensation to the performance of the funds. If the new fee format works out for the initial funds, look for Janus trustees to recommend the remainder of the fund family to adopt the fee structure.  

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