The commission-free exchange traded funds movement continues to gain steam. In late October, it was reported that Raymond James, the Florida-based brokerage firm, will offer commission-free ETFs to its registered investment advisors (RIAs) and their clients.
It is expected that Raymond James’ initial foray into commission-free ETFs will feature a combined 120 funds from First Trust, AdvisorShares, ALPS Advisors and Greenhaven. First Trust is the sixth-largest U.S. issuer of ETFs while Maryland-based AdvisorShares is one of the largest issuers of actively managed ETFs. [Raymond James Considers Commission-Free ETFs]
And on Thursday it was reported that Pershing LLC, the clearing firm, prime broker and provider of solutions to registered investment advisors that is a unit of Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK), could be the next big name to provide clients with access to select exchange traded funds on a commission-free basis.
However, Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW), Fidelity and TD Ameritrade (NasdaqGS: AMTD) have been long-standing players in the commission-free ETF game, offering those platforms to both advisors that custody assets with the firms and to their retail clients.
We recently highlighted some of the popular ETFs available on Schwab ETF OneSource, that firm’s commission-free ETF platform. Today, we examine Fidelity’s commission-free offerings with the note that all of the fund’s featured are either Fidelity or iShares ETFs because Fidelity’s commission-free platform is limited to those two providers.