I’m helping a friend restructure her $500K rollover IRA at Schwab. For a while, it was being managed by a financial advisor, so she has positions in 10 ETFs, 5 mutual funds, and quite a bit in cash. It has not been performing well compared to the overall market, and so she took over the account.

She won’t need to take out RMDs for a little over 10 years and feels comfortable investing in riskier funds than would generally be recommended for her age, because she’s not counting on this money for her day-to-day expenses. She is already retired, so she will not be adding any more contributions.

We’d like to reallocate her investments to an S&P 500 index fund and a growth company fund such as Fidelity Growth Company Fund (FDGRX), which is closed to new investors (I have this in my Roth IRA, hence I’m familiar with it).

Given that she is NOT planning on being an active trader, is there a big difference in ETFs vs. mutual funds for her rollover IRA?

Her rollover IRA currently includes SPDR S&P 500 Value ETF (SPYV). It has an expense ratio of 0.04%. We read up to understand the difference between SPY and SPYV. Fidelity 500 Index Fund (FXAIX) has an expense ratio of 0.015%. If we want a low-cost S&P 500 index tracking fund, do we simply go for FXAIX due to its lower expense ratio? Or are we missing another important consideration?

For a growth company stock, what are your thoughts on Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund (FBGRX), with expense ratio 0.47%?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.