What Shariah Funds Really Cost in South Africa: Every TER From 0.40% to 2.36%

Nobody markets a fund on its fees being high, so here is the table the industry does not print. The cheapest halal investment product in South Africa costs 0.40% a year. The most expensive mainstream option costs 2.36%, plus performance fees. Both give you Shariah-screened equity exposure. That difference, compounded over a working life, is one of the largest controllable variables in your final wealth, and it deserves more attention than any past-performance chart.

The full fee map, cheapest to priciest

• Satrix Shari'ah Top 40 ETF (STXSHA): 0.40% TER, 0.32% management fee. Passive, index-screened, equity only.
• Camissa Islamic High Yield Fund: 0.58% TER (B class), 0.50% management fee. The cheapest actively managed halal fund in the country.
• Old Mutual Albaraka Income Fund: 0.59% TER on B1, 0.71% on A.
• Oasis Crescent Income Fund: 0.70% TER, fixed fee only on Class A, no performance fee.
• Camissa Islamic Equity and Islamic Balanced: 1.04% TER on B classes (equity A class 1.49% via some platforms).
• Oasis Crescent International Property Equity Feeder: 1.09% TER.
• Old Mutual Albaraka Balanced: 1.19% B1, 1.47% A. Albaraka Equity: 1.29% B1, 1.75% A.
• Sentio Hikma Shariah General Equity: 1.21% TER (A2), no performance fee.
• Element Islamic Balanced: 1.46%. Element Islamic Equity: 1.88%.
• 27four Shari'ah Balanced Prescient FoF: 1.55% TER, 0.92% manager fee, no performance fee. 27four Shari'ah Active Equity: about 1.86%.
• Oasis Crescent International Feeder: 1.57% Class D, 2.14% Class A, on top of the underlying global fund's own 2.13% TER.
• Oasis Crescent Balanced FoFs: 1.76% to 2.04% depending on class and period, several including performance fee components of 0.18% to 0.39%.
• Oasis Crescent Equity Fund: 2.04% Class D, 2.36% Class A, plus performance fees per the Oasis fee schedule.

All figures come from minimum disclosure documents and platform fact sheets current to mid-2026; TERs move slightly period to period, so treat these as the shape of the market rather than gospel to two decimals.

What the gap actually does to your money

Take R500,000 growing at 10% a year before costs for 30 years. At a 0.40% fee it compounds to roughly R7.8 million. At 1.04%, about R6.5 million. At 2.36%, about R4.5 million. The arithmetic is blunt: the difference between the cheapest and most expensive halal equity route in South Africa can consume more than a third of your ending wealth. High fees are not automatically wrong, Oasis would point to its 15.6% per annum since-1998 record as the counterargument, but the burden of proof sits with the expensive fund, every year, forever.

The share class trap

The single most common fee mistake in this market is buying the wrong class of the right fund. Old Mutual Albaraka's Equity Fund costs 1.75% in Class A but 1.29% in the B1 class available through platforms and advisers. Its Balanced Fund drops from 1.47% to 1.19%. Camissa's equity B class at 1.04% has an A class cousin at 1.49% on some platforms. Same fund, same manager, same portfolio, materially different outcome. Before you invest a rand, ask which class your platform gives you access to, and whether a different route unlocks the cheaper one.

Performance fees: read the hurdle

Several Oasis Crescent classes charge a base fee plus a 20% share of returns above a benchmark, measured over rolling 36 months. The detail that matters is the hurdle: on the Balanced Stable FoF the benchmark is plain CPI, and on the Balanced Progressive FoF it is CPI plus 1%. Beating inflation by a whisker is a low bar for any competent balanced manager, which makes fee accrual likely in most positive markets; the Stable FoF's Class D TER of 1.76% already included a 0.39% performance fee component at 31 March 2026. Camissa, Sentio and the 27four FoF charge no performance fees at all. If you pay one, make sure the hurdle is something the manager could plausibly fail to clear.

Fees the TER does not show

• Layered fund-of-funds costs: the 27four FoF and Oasis FoFs embed the underlying funds' expenses; the feeder route to Oasis's global fund stacks a 1.57% to 2.14% feeder TER on a 2.13% underlying TER.
• Platform and administration fees: LISPs and RA platforms charge their own wrapper fees on top of fund TERs; low-balance charges exist too, like the R30 monthly fee on direct Old Mutual Albaraka accounts under R10,000 without a R500-plus debit order.
• Transaction costs: disclosed separately from TER (for example 0.08% on the Satrix ETF, 0.25% on Sentio's equity fund).
• Advice fees: negotiable, typically 0.25% to 1% per year, and entirely avoidable for confident self-directed investors.

The honest bottom line

South African halal investors no longer have to pay a faith premium. A screened portfolio built from STXSHA at 0.40% and the Camissa Islamic High Yield Fund at 0.58% costs less than most conventional balanced funds. What remains expensive is pedigree: the oldest records and the most famous scholar boards charge for the privilege. Decide what you are paying for, get the effective annual cost in writing for your specific class and platform, and check each provider's grade on our Halal Money Index before you sign. The full product data is on our investing page.

Quick answers

What is a fair TER for a halal fund in 2026?

Anchors: 0.40% passive (Satrix ETF), 0.58% to 0.71% for income funds, 1.04% for best-value active flagships (Camissa), 1.2% to 1.6% mid-range, and anything above 1.8% needs a specific justification such as Oasis's record and governance stack. Always check which share class your route accesses; the same fund can differ by half a percent.