Raymond James to Enter Commission-Free ETF Fray
Count regional broker Raymond James (NYSE: RJF) among the latest entrant to the commission-free ETF game. InvestmentNews is reporting the firm plans to offer a commission-free ETF program to registered investment advisors (RIAs) within six months.
Raymond James' RIA custody business counts 88 firms as clients and has $6 billion in assets under management, but the firm would like to more than quadruple that total to $25 billion, according to the InvestmentNews report.
Raymond James faces plenty of competition in the commission-free ETF arena and if the firm's program is limited to only RIAs, it may have a hard time gaining traction.
Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCHW) and Vanguard both offer their entire ETF lineups commission-free to retail clients. Interactive Brokers offers the entire Global X and FactorShares lineups commission-free while TD Ameritrade (Nasdaq: AMTD) offers over 100 ETFs on a commission-free basis.
Fidelity offers select iShares ETFs free of commissions while Scottrade doesn't charge to trade 15 FocusShares funds.
