After months of speculation sparked by an SEC filing announcing Grail Advisors was near an agreement to be acquired, the future for a pioneer in the active ETF space is a bit more clear. Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial has reportedly agreed to acquire Grail, giving the financial giant the exemptive relief required to launch actively-managed ETFs. [click to continue…]
iShares, the largest issuer of U.S. ETFs that was acquired last year by BlackRock, has received SEC approval to introduce actively-managed ETFs. iShares currently offers more than 200 passively-indexes ETFs, and the recent SEC decision opens the door for the company to introduce exchange-traded products not linked to a specific benchmark. iShares ETFs had aggregate [...]
Grail Advisors, the San Francisco-based ETF issuer known for pioneering the actively-managed ETF space, recently made an interesting filing with the SEC. In the document, Grail announced that it was entering into a letter of intent concerning a transaction involving ownership interests in order to continue its operations, including paying its future obligations under its [...]
The ETF industry has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, thanks in large part to a shift by investors towards cost-efficient passive indexing strategies and away from pricey active management. But many in the industry have opined that actively-managed ETFs–in a sense hybrid products that exhibit characteristics of both active mutual funds and [...]
Bethesda, Maryland-based AdvisorShares announced today the launch of the Mars Hill Global Relative Value ETF (GRV), the second ETF product from the company. The new ETF will be actively-managed; instead of seeking to replicate the performance of a particular benchmark, GRV will attempt to generate consistent positive returns in excess of the average annual return [...]
The rise of the ETF industry has been truly remarkable in almost every way. A surge in product offerings has democratized asset classes and investment strategies previously available only to institutions and the super-rich. ETFs have been embraced as an efficient means of accessing everything from copper to Treasuries. And while the industry remains very [...]
To say opinions on the future of active ETFs are mixed would be a major understatement. Nearly two years after PowerShares launched its first line of active ETFs and a year after the much-publicized launch of the Grail American Beacon Large Cap Value ETF (GVT), active ETFs remain stuck in first gear. Investors have expressed [...]
Legg Mason appears ready to make its long anticipated move into the active ETF space. The Baltimore-based asset management firm filed for approval with the SEC that would allow it to introduce actively-managed ETFs to U.S. markets. Filing for exemptive relief is one of the first steps on the road to launching ETFs, and requires [...]
Last year saw more than 100 new product launches, ranging from plain vanilla equity and bond funds to ETFs offering exposure to exotic new investment strategies and asset classes previously available only to a limited slice of the investing community. The innovation that has made ETFs a popular alternative to mutual funds seems ready to [...]
Tuesday marks the first day of trading for the PIMCO Short Term Municipal Bond Strategy Fund (SMMU), the third actively-managed ETF from the Newport Beach, California-based bond fund giant. The fund is designed for investors seeking tax-exempt income, and consists of a diversified portfolio of short duration, high credit quality bonds that carry interest income [...]
T. Rowe Price has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to launch a line of actively-managed ETFs. In its filing for exemptive relief with the SEC, T. Rowe indicated that its initial fund would invest primarily in domestic fixed income securities, but that it could eventually launch domestic and international equity ETFs, [...]
