New products and changes introduced over the last week include lower prices from Fidelity Investments on 27 of its mutual funds and ETFs; two new ETFs from State Street Global Advisors and one each from Guggenheim, AccuShares and Deutsche Asset Management.
In addition, State Street made changes to its financial sector ETF; Lindner Capital Advisors announced a new 401(k) fee structure; and Wealthbox CRM and Advizr announced an integration.
Here are the latest developments of interest to advisors:
1) Fidelity Cuts Prices on 27 Funds, ETFs
Fidelity Investments lowered total expenses on 27 of its equity and bond index mutual funds and ETFs, effective July 1. The average expenses across Fidelity's index fund lineup will be 10.2 basis points (0.102%), down from 11.6 basis points.
(Related on ThinkAdvisor: Fidelity Fires Latest Shot in Index Fund Fee War)
A total of 16 index mutual funds and 11 index ETFs are affected by the change and savings per fund range from one-half to four basis points, with most somewhere falling between the two.
2) State Street Global Advisors Adds 2 ETFs, Makes Changes to Sector Fund
State Street Global Advisors launched the SPDR S&P Technology Hardware ETF (XTH) and the SPDR S&P Internet ETF (XWEB). Each has a gross expense ratio of 0.35%.
XTH tracks the performance of the S&P Technology Hardware Select Industry Index, comprised of companies in technology hardware, storage and peripherals, electronic equipment and instruments, and electronic components subindustry.
XWEB tracks the performance of the S&P Internet Select Industry Index, which covers retail internet companies as well as internet software and services companies.
In addition, State Street announced it will change its Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLF) to correspond with modifications to the Global Industry Classification Standards (GICS) by S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI. Since the GICS changes divide the current financial sector into two sectors — financial services and real estate — the Financial Sector Index will be reconstituted to exclude real estate securities except mortgage REITS, effective September 16, 2016.
In advance of the reconstitution, XLF will obtain real estate exposure from shares of the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLRE), and the operating fees and expenses of XLRE are waived until September 16. Once changes to the Financial Sector Index are effective, XLF intends to issue a special dividend to its shareholders, comprised of shares of XLRE.
3) Guggenheim Adds Equal Weight ETF
Guggenheim Investments introduced the Guggenheim S&P 100 Equal Weight ETF (OEW), which provides equal weight access to 100 of the largest and most stable companies in the S&P 500.
