The ETF fee war heated up Monday when TD Ameritrade said it would nearly triple the number of products on its commission-free trading platform to 296.
The expanded platform includes ETFs made by eight fund providers, such as iShares, ProShares, State Street, PowerShares and WisdomTree — but not Vanguard. The added funds will be available to TD Ameritrade's 5,000 RIA clients and retail investors on the platform starting Tuesday.
"We've assembled the largest list of commission-free ETFs in the business, while still retaining our open-architecture approach, with no proprietary ETFs," said Jim Dario, managing director of product management for TD Ameritrade Institutional, in a statement.
"The new platform will feature some of the biggest names in the ETF industry, with ETFs selected to cover a range of investment strategies and enable investors and advisors to create tailored, diversified portfolios," he explained.
Last week, rival Charles Schwab began offering investors shares of the Schwab 1000 Index ETF with an operating expense ratio of five basis points (0.05%). Comparable ETFs from State Street, Vanguard and iShares charge between 10 and 15 basis points.
