Putnam Investments, a Boston-based asset manager that distributes its mutual funds through financial advisors, is entering the ETF market.
The firm, which has $190 billion in assets split almost equally between mutual funds and institutional assets, announced plans to launch four actively managed equity ETFs, all semi-transparent, meaning they won’t disclose their actual holdings on a daily basis. All four ETFs are similar to mutual funds of the firm.
Putnam’s entry into the ETF market will follow that of another mutual fund-only firm that distributed exclusively through advisors, then made the same pivot: Dimensional Fund Advisors.
Two of the Putnam ETFs will focus on sustainable investing — the Putnam Sustainable Leaders ETF and the Putnam Sustainable Future ETF — and two will target large-cap equities: the Putnam Focused Large Cap Growth ETF and the Putnam Focused Large Cap Value ETF.
The Sustainable Leaders ETF targets companies committed to sustainable business practices. The Sustainable Future ETF focuses on companies whose products and services contribute to sustainable social, environmental and economic development.