ETF investors stand to gain from lower fees

Article Excerpt

We feel that investors will profit the most from a well-balanced portfolio of high-quality individual stocks, but ETFs can also play a role in a portfolio—especially low-fee funds. ETF providers are now cutting fees even lower to gain market share. That further boosts their appeal as an alternative to pricey mutual funds, although even they are reducing their fees to compete. In the U.S., Fidelity has recently started offering two index mutual funds with zero expense ratios—Fidelity Zero Total Market Index, a U.S. stock market fund, and Fidelity Zero International Index, an international stock market fund. ETFs such as the Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI) and the Schwab US Broad Market (SCHB) are already available at 0.04% and 0.03%. In Canada, fees are also heading lower—if not yet to zero. In June, BMO Asset Management announced that it was lowering the MER on its BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF (ZAG) by 1 basis point to 0.08%. In July, Invesco announced fee reductions or…