Fidelity slashes fund fees, minimums

The fee war among exchange-traded funds has spread to index mutual funds. Fidelity Investments announced that it is lowering fees on eight of its Spartan index funds, as well as the investment minimums for all 14 of its index funds. The fee cuts range from 1 to 8 basis points. Current shareholders will see the biggest change in cost, as their share class will be upgraded. The minimum investment for the investor class of the index mutual funds has been lowered to $2,500, from $10,000. The minimum for the Fidelity Advantage share class has been lowered to $10,000, from $100,000. That shift bumps existing investor class shareholders to the more cost-friendly Fidelity Advantage share class, free of charge. For example, the investor share class of the $48 billion Fidelity Spartan 500 Index Fund (FUSEX) charges 0.095%, while the Fidelity Advantage share class will charge just 0.05% after the fee cuts. That will put its cost on par with the $6 billion Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO). Visit InvestmentNews.com/fido to see the full list of changes. jkephart@investmentnews.com Twitter: @jasonkephart