A thousand dollars here, a thousand dollars there — it begins to really add up. The recent reduction in Vanguard and Schwab ETF fund fee cuts, and in TD Ameritrade Institutional's trade commission, are doing just that.
Could this be the peak of the venture capital cycle?
1Q17 CIO Commentary
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Bull in a China Shop
Fiduciary Rule or not, the commission-based business model of broker-dealers is under pressure. Today the Wall Street Journal reports that Merrill Lynch is moving away from commissions and lowering its maximum advisory fee by 18.5% for the 20% of its advisory clients which have sub-$1 million accounts. But at 2.2% of assets, Merrill Lynch's maximum advisory fee is still extremely high.