“We’re not engaging in a fee war,” says Martha King, managing director of Vanguard’s financial adviser services, in the report. “We’re running this company the way we have for decades.” [Investing on a Shoestring with Low-Cost ETFs]
“Overall, this is not a price war. This is all about working with our clients. I think [analysts and the press]have created this myth about a price war,” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in October. [The Phony ETF Fee War?]
“We have never done anything as something that we are a fight between BlackRock and Vanguard,” Fink added during BlackRock’s recent fourth-quarter earnings call. “That’s a topical myth by the media. We are just trying to execute our strategy and provide what we think are great outcomes.”
No matter what the motive, the bottom line is that this ultimately benefits the investor. The successive price cuts also put more pressure on the mutual fund industry to keep fees to a minimum.
Tisha Guerrero contributed to this article.