Hacker News Reader

RE: Fidelity Zero

The downside, as I understand it, is that Fidelity Zero doesn’t offer ETFs, and that the Fidelity Zero mutual funds can’t be transferred to other brokerages. Depending on your preferences their expense ratios might justify the vendor lock-in, but Vanguard ETFs are hard to beat IMO.

View on HN

I tend to only use the zero funds in tax advantaged accounts. Primary example, I needed to move an HSA to avoid a $20/month fee from the idiots at Health Equity when I switched jobs. Moved it immediately to Fidelity since they offer an HSA account and used the zero funds.

If I were to ever need to move the HSA money elsewhere, they can sell the funds to transfer, since it's not a taxable event, that's fine by me.

I won't buy the zero funds for my brokerage account though, I stick with Vanguard ETFs.

I wonder what the tax efficiency looks like when comparing a zero fee fund to its low fee ETF counterpart. Is it possible an ETF under 5 or even 10 basis points is still a better deal if it's tax efficient (taxable accounts only)?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com