Fidelity Investments will impose a new fee on ETFs issued by nine firms including Simplify Asset Management Inc. and AXS Investments in order to meet the cost of listing the products on the financial powerhouse’s platform, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News.
Under the plan, which will come into force on June 3, investors will face a $100 servicing charge when they place buy orders on a cohort of exchange-traded strategies. The new fee applies to a small minority of firms that don’t participate in a maintenance arrangement with Fidelity, the client notice said.
Day Hagan, Sterling Capital, Cambiar, Regents Park, Rayliant, Adaptive and Running Oak are among those firms included in the so-called Surcharge Eligible ETF list, it added.
The document said the latter list will be updated periodically and may change before the plan goes into force. The initial list subject to the fee charge represents less than 0.5% of mutual funds and ETFs available to investment advisers on the Fidelity platform, it added.
“We remain committed to providing clients choice with an open architecture investment platform,” a Fidelity spokesperson said in an email. “Support fees help maintain the technology and service operations needed to ensure a secure and positive experience for investors.”
Investment firms typically pay Fidelity a fee for the operational support it provides by listing their ETF products on its online platform, which is highly popular with wealth managers and other types of investors. In 2019, Fidelity cut trading commissions to zero for online buying and selling of stocks, ETFs and options, following similar moves from Interactive Brokers Group Inc. and Charles Schwab.
The plan comes as mutual funds continue to be hit with billions of dollars of outflows, while famously tax-efficient ETFs gain fresh market share across assets. Mutual funds bled roughly $656 billion in 2023, while ETFs raked in $578 billion, Investment Company Institute data compiled by Bloomberg show.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.