What You Need to Know
- The changes reflect Morningstar's new Broad Style Indexes.
- The nine ETFs, totaling $7.5 billion in assets all have new tickers and expense ratios that are a fraction of previous fees.
- The fee cut is intended to match or underprice similar Vanguard ETFs.
As expected, nine of BlackRock’s iShares equity ETFs have switched to Morningstar’s new broad style equity indexes and, with that conversion, have not only changed their underlying indexes and ticker symbols but slashed their fees as well, to match or underprice similar Vanguard ETFs. Three of the iShares ETFs have also changed their names.
In addition, all nine ETFs, which represent a total $7.5 billion in assets, will undergo share splits effective at the close of business on April 16 for shareholders of record as of April 14, making their shares cheaper and even more accessible to investors.
The new Morningstar Broad Style indexes that the iShares ETFs track are more refined than Morningstar’s previous indexes. For example, cap-weighted indexes are now also assigned growth or value designations, and Morningstar’s U.S. Large Value, Large Core and Large Growth Indexes now also include mid-cap stocks.