Someone raised the question of a mutual fund vs exchange traded fund on another thread, so I did some reading up about them at Wikipedia:

Mutual Fund
Exchange Traded Fund

The criticisms levied against mutual funds seem pretty strong - high charges, no requirements to increase share value as much as investor pool.

However, criticisms of ETF's don't seem as strong - from an initial point of view they both better as an safe investment option.

Is that a fair appraisal to make?

Go with an ETF if you have to. I don't like mutuals but I think you should learn to make your investment decisions yourself if you want to get the most out of your investments.

ETFs have their strong points as noted above. But for regular small investment amounts, a MF will probably cost less even with a sales load. Every ETF purchase is subject to transaction and brokerage fees just like a stock so it is probably best to purchase ETFs in single large transactions as with a roll over or a consolidation of retirement funds.

Maybe this is so because if ETF charges high fees, and some investors opt to take them, then it must be worth it.