Front End Load

See A-shares and deferred load. The term applies to mutual funds: if you buy a front-end load mutual fund, you're paying commissions up front, so the load or weight on the investment return happens at the beginning.

Initially, you're making less on your investment because part of your cash is going towards the pesky commissions, but since they're out of the way, once your investment takes off, you don't have to pay.