Great comments by Kirk Kinder at Swim Upstream to Wealth on a recent Kiplingers article discussing the No Transaction Fee (NTF) platforms of the discount brokerages like Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Fidelity. Here’s the link to the post. As Kirk points out:

These NTF platforms actually drive up the cost of the funds. Each fund pays the discount brokerage 40 basis points or 0.4% per year to be on the platform. The investor buys the fund because there is no upfront fee, but they pay a higher annual fee.

Seems a bit ironic, no?

Read the whole post here.