What Are Share Classes?

By Kristi Waterworth – Updated Nov 23, 2025 at 5:29 PM

Key Points

Stocks offer multiple share classes: A, B, executive, and preferred; each affects voting power and dividends.
Mutual funds have different classes (A, B, C) primarily defining how investors are charged fees.
Understanding share classes helps investors gauge fee structures and their rights within investments.

When choosing an investment, especially a mutual fund or stock, you have options, including which share classes you want. Some share classes are limited to certain types of investors, while others are available to anyone with a brokerage account.

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Hands playing a child's game with a folded paper labeled Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, and Mutual Funds. — Image source: Getty Images.

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About the Author

Kristi Waterworth has been a contributing real estate and financial expert at The Motley Fool, covering real estate, investing, and personal finance topics, since 2020. Kristi has been interviewed by various TV media outlets and podcasts for her real estate investing expertise – from residential real estate to digital real estate and everything in between. Kristi’s journalist career spans over 25 years, and she has written about real estate investing, homeownership, and home construction specifically for the last decade. She was also previously a licensed Realtor and general building contractor before the Great Recession and housing market collapse. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American history from Columbia College in Missouri.

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