In August, Fidelity Investments, the wealth management giant, did something wild, at least by the standards of the wealth management industry. It announced it would offer two mutual funds with no management fees. The move was seen as the culmination of a price war among companies such as Fidelity, Vanguard Group, BlackRock, and Charles Schwab, and as great news for middle-class investors. Jon Stein, however, wasn’t a fan.
Betterment founder Jon Stein.
Photographer: Jeremy Liebman for Bloomberg Businessweek
Stein is the chief executive officer of Betterment LLC, the startup that helped spark the fee war by persuading millennials to buy the cheapest funds they could find. “I love that ...