Converting Fidelity Investor shares to Advantage shares

[vv]

Spartan International Index Fund - Investor Class (FSIIX) have a $10,000 Minimum Initial Investment.
Spartan International Index Fund - Fidelity Advantage Class (FSIVX) have a $100,000 Minimum Initial Investment.

They appear to be identical funds except the Advantage class carries lowers expense ratios.

I currently hold Investor class shares but was thinking of purchasing additional shares that would bring me to the $100,000 minimum needed for the Advantage class shares.
Can you convert from Investor shares to Advantage shares once you reach the $100,000 minimum, and if so, would it trigger a taxable event?

With Vanguard, upgrading to Admiral shares is not a taxable event and you can do it yourself online

I will call Fidelity and ask, but I thought it would be insightful to hear other peoples experiences. (I didn't find anything in the search archive about this, so perhaps this post will be useful to others in the future)

[Langkawi]

From the Prospectus:

You may convert Investor Class shares to Fidelity Advantage Class shares at any time, provided that you meet the eligibility requirements for Fidelity Advantage Class. You may contact Fidelity by telephone or by mail to request a conversion.

A conversion will be based on the respective NAVs of the two classes, without the imposition of any fees, on the trade date of the conversion. A conversion between share classes of the same fund is a non-taxable event.

[Kevin M]

... I thought it would be insightful to hear other peoples experiences.

I called them and they did it. As already answered, not a taxable event.

[bUU]

Thanks for this thread, months later.

I does raise in my mind the question: Why don't they have a button you can press to make that request (or do that conversion) automatically, instead of taking up a phone agent's time with it?

[bdpb]

I does raise in my mind the question: Why don't they have a button you can press to make that request (or do that conversion) automatically, instead of taking up a phone agent's time with it?

Fidelity is a little quirky about a few things like this. For example, if you have a BrokerageLink (BL) in your 401k, they will allow self directed moves from the 401k side (non-BL options) to the BL, but they won't allow self directed moves from BL to the 401k side. I can think of two reasons why they might not allow things like this. One, many folks may screw up the move and expect Fidelity to fix something they may not be able to fix. Second, in the case of the BL, I suspect they prefer to see the assets left in the BL instead of the 401k side because the 401k side may not contain Fidelity products.

It's not necessary to initiate this action on your own. Periodically (monthly, I think), Fidelity will automatically convert Investor class accounts to Advantage accounts.

[bUU]

Actually, it is. I just spoke to Fido. Evidently, the change in the divisions between the share classes aren't reflected in the automatic conversion of classes. Presumably, the conversions will still be automatic at the old thresholds, but to have the conversion take place at the new lower, thresholds, you have to call to have the change initiated.

[SpringMan]

Fidelity said they will automatically convert these funds in January if your fund has $10K or more.

[bUU]

So we're getting directly contradictory information from the same source.

Lovely.

[Kevin M]

From an email I got from Fidelity on Dec 11:

For clients who will now qualify for the Fidelity Advantage® share class, the funds will automatically convert to the appropriate share class during our monthly updating process in January.

Kevin

[Majormajor78]

So we're getting directly contradictory information from the same source.

Lovely.

Fidelity recently lowered the minimums and ER's of many of the the Spartan index funds as well several other active funds to be more competitive. There have been numerous threads here lately.

Here's a link to the source material:
http://www.fidelity.com/inside-fidelity ... areholders

[bUU]

I was on the telephone with Fidelity asking why the conversion did not happen. I wasn't relying on some prior memory. I was getting the word straight from them, prompted by the fact that the conversion didn't happen. I'm sorry if I was vague about that. So either the written word is wrong, or the folks at Fidelity who checked why the conversion didn't take place didn't know anything about it happening in January.

As it is, the conversion happened overnight in response to my request to convert.