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October 07, 2019 at 11:00 AM
Vanguard expanded its actively managed offerings with the new Vanguard International Core Stock Fund (VWICX), managed by Wellington Management.
VWICX is “designed to be a core holding, offering an active portfolio of developed and emerging market equities that is designed to outperform across regions, styles, and sectors,” Vanguard explained.
The fund is being offered in Admiral Shares, with an estimated net expense ratio of 0.35%, and Investor Shares, with an estimated net expense ratio of 0.45%, both “considerably lower than the asset-weighted average expense ratio of 0.75% for the industry’s large-blend fund category,” Vanguard said, citing Morningstar data. The minimum is $3,000 for Investor Shares and $50,000 for Admiral Shares.
Vanguard now has an 70 actively managed mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, including three active offerings it introduced over the past year: Vanguard Global ESG Select Stock Fund, Vanguard Commodity Strategy Fund, and Vanguard Global Credit Bond Fund.
Schwab to Offer 3 New Fixed Income ETFs
Charles Schwab Investment Management will start trading three new fixed income ETFs Oct. 10, it said.
The new ETFs are the Schwab 1-5 Year Corporate Bond ETF (SCHJ), Schwab 5-10 Year Corporate Bond ETF (SCHI) and Schwab Long-Term U.S. Treasury ETF (SCHQ). Each has a 0.06% net expense ratio, which Schwab said makes them “among the least expensive in their respective categories.”
The new ETFs almost double Schwab’s bond ETF offerings, from four to seven, and increases the total number of Schwab ETFs to 25. Since launching its first ETF in 2009, Schwab has risen to become the No. 5 provider with $151 billion in ETF assets, it said, citing Strategic Insight data.
Betterment Enhances Model Portfolios for Advisors
Advisors using the Betterment for Advisors platform can now customize the name of the model portfolios it uses from the platform, called Flexible Portfolios, and adjust the weights of the 17 available asset classes for all clients at once.
Previously advisors only had the ability to adjust asset weightings of model portfolios on an individual client basis.
Bloomberg BSKT Service Picked by USB for ETFs
UBS Asset Management selected Bloomberg’s Basket service (BSKT) to enhance ETF portfolio management, the companies said.
UBS-AM is the first ETF issuer to use BSKT’s enhanced standard basket functionality, which enables authorized participants to seamlessly use Bloomberg data and analytics to deliver baskets of bonds to ETFs for creation and redemption of fund shares, the companies said.
Using BSKT, UBS-AM can scale its fixed income ETF business, consolidate interactions into a single interface and manage interactions on BSKT’s electronic workflows, they said. Adopting BSKT also provides UBS-AM with customization capabilities on standard orders and more flexibility for clients and brokers, according to the companies.
BSKT is part of Bloomberg’s comprehensive ETF suite of products that support the full ETF lifecycle, and are used by investors, issuers and liquidity providers.
Nasdaq Dorsey Wright, IndexIQ Collaborate on Alternative ETF
IndexIQ joined forces with Richmond, Virginia-based RIA Nasdaq Dorsey Wright to launch the IQ Alternative Allocation Model, the first liquid alternative model on the ETF platform of New York Life Investments division IndexIQ.
The IQ Alternative Allocation Model is designed to give advisors an “absolute return strategy built around” IndexIQ’s suite of liquid alternative ETFs and is available to financial advisors and RIAs who subscribe to Nasdaq Dorsey Wright’s platform. No overlay fee will be assessed, the companies said.
The model rebalances monthly and is comprised of two equal weights from the IndexIQ suite that includes: IQ Merger Arbitrage ETF (MNA), IQ Hedge Long/Short ETF (QLS), IQ Hedge Event-Driven Tracker ETF (QED), IQ Hedge Market Neutral Tracker ETF (QMN), IQ Hedge Macro Tracker ETF (MCRO) and IQ Real Return ETF (CPI).
The net expense ratios on four of the funds included in the model—QLS, QED, MCRO and QMN—were recently reduced by 35 basis points via a management fee waiver until Aug. 31, 2020, and are now 0.67% for QLS and QMN, 0.78% for QED and 0.69% for MCRO. Net expense ratios for the other two ETFs remain 0.78% for MNA and 0.79% for QAI, according to the company’s website.
JP Morgan Asset Management to Liquidate 2 Funds
JP Morgan Asset Management is liquidating two $1 billion-plus funds: The $1.1 billion JP Morgan Emerging Economies fund and $1.6 billion JP Morgan Intrepid America fund, it said.
