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4 Things Advisors Need to Know When Switching to ETFs

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The great migration continues as ETFs gain an ever-growing share of the investment market. The growth in the ETF sector has been virtually unbroken since the first such product was rolled out in 1993.

As the lower fees (usually calculated in single digit basis points) charged for ETFs have attracted more RIAs to use them as part of client portfolios, advisors have been forced to adjust the way they do business in order to account for the differences between the way mutual funds and ETFs work.

Still there is work to do, says Mohit Bajaj, director of ETF trading solutions at WallachBeth Capital.

“Most people don’t know what an ETF is. Advisors need to educate clients,” he says. “There is some resistance because certain advisors are old school. That’s OK.”

And advisors need to educate themselves and adjust their thinking. Among the key differences RIAs must keep in mind, Bajaj, who was formerly a vice president at Deutsche Bank and Bear Stearns, says, are the frequency of quote changes, fund capitalization, role of the market maker and intraday trading costs.

Bajaj, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor, talked about four things RIAs need to consider when using ETFs as investment vehicles.

Besides those cheaper fees, Bajaj says a key advantage to ETFs is that they include different asset classes and cross international boundaries.

1. Management

The majority of ETFs, Bajaj notes, are passively managed in comparison to mutual funds. Because they track indices, it’s important for advisors to rebalance every three to six months.

2. Investing the Income

It is not possible to buy partial shares in an ETF as one can in a mutual fund. Excess income, of course, can be invested in mutual funds or held in reserve until enough accrues to purchase a full share.

3. Platform Restrictions

Advisors need to be aware that some ETFs are married specifically to one platform, making them unavailable on others. The trend, Bajaj says, is for more ETFs to be available across more platforms, which will allow growth in the sector to continue and even accelerate.

4. Market Makers

Without careful research, it can be easy to mistake an ETF for being illiquid when that isn’t the case. Bajaj says market makers often help institutional investors by finding pools of liquidity providers to help them buy up mega amounts of shares in a desired fund. “It happens a lot more than most people think,” says Bajaj. So, advisors need to be on the lookout to help the process along.

– Related on ThinkAdvisor: Under the Hood: The Race Between ETFs and Mutual Funds


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