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February 08, 2013 at 10:22 AM
The Charles Schwab Corp. announced its game-changing commission-free ETF platform to much fanfare on Thursday, but less heralded has been a new ETF education resource launched in the fourth quarter that could help advisors use these ETFs.
Speaking with AdvisorOne ahead of IndexUniverse’s InsideETFs Conference, Schwab’s head of third-party ETF platform management Beth Flynn says the Schwab ETF Education Exchange is a cross-industry collaborative effort.
“Together with 30 other industry participants, we present educational materials on ETFs for all of our clients,” Flynn says. Morningstar, Guggenheim, SPDR University and BlackRock are among the content providers contributing to the site.
“It’s way more than Schwab could do on its own,” Flynn says.
The site, launched in November, contains whitepapers, tutorials, videos, commentaries, links to webcasts and live education sessions, Flynn says, adding “there’s no product sales push; it’s purely educational.”
Notably, there are three versions of the site, including a dedicated channel for financial professionals.
“There you’ll have access to our ETF platform and recommendations for clients—everything from ETFs 101 to sophisticated hedging and overlay strategies,” Flynn says.
A recent study commissioned by Schwab found that 45% of investors consider themselves novices when it comes to understanding ETFs, so the new site may aid investors and advisors meet this knowledge deficit.
Other advisor education initiatives Schwab has backed include a quarterly webcast on topics such as trading, best practices or sectors such as commodities. “We typically invite third party experts to join us for the sessions,” Flynn says.
