Blackrock's a profit maximizing company that hasn't been above shafting their investors before. The internet reminded me that in 2012 Blackrock launched a new core series of etfs, launched to be price competitive. Most of them covered the same ground as, and were meant to replace (at least in marketing terms), ishares etfs that had been operating, and would continue operating, since ishares started in the mid-90s. What Blackrock did not do was reduce the expense ratios on the existing funds. For instance ITOT launched with an er of 7bp (says the linked press release) but the (now) non-core fund it superseded cost 30. The people who had invested with ishares and helped make that business and who had a decade or more of capital gains that meant they couldn't effectively sell up, those people were just treated by Blackrock as cash cows to be milked. Blackrock could have done right by their existing fund investors and lowered the expenses on the existing funds in order to be competitive, but they chose not too. To my knowledge Vanguard has never done anything like that.
Statistics: Posted by asset_chaos — Sun Jun 23, 2024 3:57 am — Replies 26 — Views 3310
