Fidelity appears to have joined Schwab and TDAmeritrade in offering a wide variety of load funds NTF and with load waived. (Found this info on a M* discussion thread.)
In some cases, this winds up being even better than the TF share class. For example, Blackrock Equity Dividend service class (MSDVX) is a noload institutional share class that Fidelity offers with TF and a low min. Its ER is 1.03%. Fidelity now offers class A shares (MDDVX) NTF and load waived, with a slightly lower ER of 0.99%. When you look at the load funds, pay no attention to the M* stars. They include the effect of the front end load, which you're not paying. Sometimes the star rating is higher if the load is waived. You'll have to check directly with M* for that info.
Fidelity doesn't seem to provide a list of these newly added funds, but if you search (via google) for:
"load-waived through Fidelity" site:fidelity.com
you'll get the funds.
As near as I can tell, the fund families affected are:
Nuveen,
Neuberger Berman (see below),
Henderson,
Morgan Stanley (but NL class I shares, with lower ER available at low min with TF in IRAs),
Calvert,
Nomura Partners (see below),
Blackrock,
Hotchkis Wiley,
Eaton Vance (including Gaffney-managed Strategic Income ETSIX),
Dreyfus (see below),
Guggenheim (including Rydex),
Putnam,
Legg Mason (but not Value Trust),
Invesco (see below),
JP Morgan,
Goldman Sachs,
Pioneer,
Principal,
Ridgeworth (see below),
DWS,
Calamos,
Federated,
Western Asset (see below),
Van Eck.
"Footnotes":
Nomura offers only load funds (now load waived at Fidelity), except for one unique fund: The Japan Fund (SJPNX). IMHO, this storied fund (oldest Japanese fund in the US) is the exception that proves the rule. Unlike nearly all funds offered by various fund "families", this fund has (or at least had) an independent board of directors. In 2003, disaffected with Scudder,
it moved itself to Fidelity. Then in 2009,
it moved to Nomura (though I don't know if that was initiated by the board or by Nomura/Fidelity), where it remained noload. But Nomura added a load share class, now load waived at Fidelity (but with a higher ER than the NTF SJPNX share class).
N&B funds - a noload "Trust" class has been offered NTF through Fidelity for decades. This carries a 12b-1 fee, unlike the true retail noload Investor class shares. It looks like the Investor shares have a lower ER than the A shares, which in turn is lower than the Trust shares. But N&B has closed Investor class shares to direct investors. They appear to be open (NTF) at Schwab, and likely elsewhere.
Dreyfus - obviously there are lots of NL funds in this family. But several years ago, it converted many of its funds to load funds (and made the original shares Z class, closed except to grandfathered investors). It is these funds where the A share class is now being offered with no load, NTF (but still higher ER than the original Z shares).
Invesco - like Dreyfus, a family with a mix of load and no load funds. The funds with no load investor shares also have A shares (now load waived). There may be slight differences in ER, e.g. for Diversified Dividend Fund, the investor class shares (LCEIX) are 1 basis point cheaper than the A shares (LCEAX), while for Dividend Income Fund, the ERs for investor (FSTUX) and A (IAUTX) appear to be the same.
Ridgeworth - Class I shares with lower ER than Class A shares are available with low mins. In several cases, the Class I is NTF, the A class isn't load-waived, so Class I is the obvious choice. For other funds, the Class I is TF, but lower ER than the newly load-waived, NTF class A shares.
Western Asset - Offers Class FI shares, NTF for three of the funds. Class I has the lower ER for Core Bond (WAPIX) and Core Plus Bond (WACIX), but higher ER for Inflation Indexed Plus Bond (WATPX; the cheaper A shares are WAFAX).
Comments
Again, thanks
He had to check with the trading dept.but he was able to verify that ESMAX was in fact now NTF and load waived and he placed the order for me.Sounds counter productive for Fidelity but until their trading system is updated to avoid some confusion it probably will require a phone call. Still this is a new and welcome change for those of us who have avoided load funds on principle.
Also, low minimums on some funds.So everyone can now start some more research!