Fidelity Investments has removed the annual fee of 0.08% of assets it used to charge on the supervision of the Freedom funds’ holdings of other Fidelity funds. The fee was eliminated after Morningstar Inc., a fund researcher, has lashed on the firm for charging investors for what other funds like Vanguard and T. Rowe Price Group do not force their investors to pay.

John Sweeney, a Fidelity senior vice president for mutual-fund product management, said the customer dissatisfaction was also considered in the decision to cut the fee. "Customers asked us about it a lot," he said. "It just became a stumbling block."

The annual charges on the Fidelity Freedom funds used to hover around 0.68% to 0.91% of assets when sold directly to investors, with higher fees on versions sold by financial advisers. The percentages include the 0.08% oversight charge. Now the elimination of the charge will lead to the annual loss of $27.9 million for Fidelity.

The Freedom funds are target-retirement funds that include a mix of holdings fitting, in the opinion of the company’s management, the future retirees about to retire in a given year. The oversight fee covered the salaries of the staff that oversaw the choice of funds to be held by the Freedom funds.