The fee war is officially over. Well, at least I want it to be. Not that lower fees aren’t a great thing for investors, but they seem to have become the only thing (as I’ve written about before). However, I think there is some evidence that fees — insomuch as measured by expense ratios — are losing their singular status and that important ETF metrics are being accounted for by the masses. I may be grasping at straws, but I believe the little things still matter in ETF investing.
As evidenced by the chart below, flows into ETFs are still robust. But they are increasingly being directed into the lowest-cost funds. Is that it? Are investors just blindly buying whatever is cheapest? Many observers may believe that’s the case, but I don’t think it’s the whole story. Let’s explore.