Vanguard has entered the trading fee fray and will be offering free trades of its own ETFs via the Vanguard brokerage unit. If you already use them it is a nice benefit and new folks could create a solid portfolio based on some of the lowest fee ETFs around. Read Article
This fund has an obvious focus on the Utility sector. It has 35 stock holdings with exposure to both regulated and unregulated markets. It also has more volume, lower fees, higher yield and far more in assets than a similar fund from Vanguard (VPU). While everything has a risk, utilities have long been considered a nice defensive sector to hold in down times. They can also make for a nice, stable holding in less crazy times as well. Here are some of the stats:
Yield: 4%+ paid quarterly
Fees: 0.21%
Holdings: Exelon, Southern Company, Dominion Resources, FPL Group, Duke Energy, PG&E
Morningstar.com is reporting that Schwab has filed the paperwork for eight new ETFs. They expect that they will offer similar coverage as a number of current funds but will have much lower expenses. Once released you may want to compare these funds with similar funds you hold and see if you can reduce your expenses while maintaining the coverage you have. It looks like Vanguard will be the toughest competitor at the listed expenses.
Read the full article here.