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May 24, 2021 at 09:28 AM
What You Need to Know
- Morgan Stanley's Investing with Impact Platform, which launched in 2012, has more than $60 billion in client assets.
- Also, BlackRock, ProShares, WisdomTree, Matthew Tuttle and SonicShares launched new ETFs.
- Betterment for Advisors has a new tool, Co-pilot, which offers several touchpoints for client engagement.
Morgan Stanley Wealth Management has launched a Racial Equity Investing Tool Kit as part of its Investing with Impact Platform to help investors who want to advance the goals of racial equity and social justice.
The Investing with Impact Platform, which launched in 2012 and has more than $60 billion in client assets, has highlighted for advisors and clients investment strategies that are at least 50% women and/or minority-owned since 2015. The Racial Equity Investing Tool Kit includes a proprietary investment framework that identifies ways to mitigate risk and pursue opportunities across a number of investment strategies, including:
- Strategies at asset management firms owned by, or with significant representation of, racial or ethnic minorities
- Strategies that invest in managers and companies seeking to alleviate social disparities, such as providing access to capital, affordable housing & community services, criminal justice reform, economic inclusion and education
- Strategies that incorporate a range of environmental, social and governance criteria, including racial equity criteria focused on policies supportive of attracting and retaining talented diverse employees
- Strategies that minimize or avoid exposure to companies, sectors or geographies with lagging racial equity records
Clients working with a financial advisor can also utilize Morgan Stanley Impact Quotient (Morgan Stanley IQ) to formalize their impact goals and then evaluate their portfolio on more than 100 social and environmental impact preferences.
BlackRock Adds Investment-Grade Corporate Bond ETF
BlackRock has launched the iShares BBB Rated Corporate Bond ETF (LQDB), which invests in the lowest overall credit category of the investment-grade market. The ETF is BlackRock’s 107th fixed income ETF; these funds total over $470 billion in assets.
The market-cap weighted diversified ETF tracks the iBoxx USD (U.S. dollar) Liquid Investment Grade BBB 0+ index and has a 0.14% expense ratio.
Steve Laipply, U.S. Head of iShares Fixed Income ETFs, says the number of outstanding BBB-rated U.S. corporate bonds has more than tripled over the past 12 years and new issuance continues to be met with strong demand.
ProShares Launches a Concentrated Nasdaq-100 Equity ETF
ProShares has launched the ProShares Nasdaq-100 Dorsey Wright Momentum ETF (QQQA), which focuses on select Nasdaq-100 stocks identified as having the greatest potential to outperform.
The ETF consists of the 21 stocks in the Nasdaq-100 Dorsey Wright Momentum Index with the highest price momentum as determined by Dorsey Wright based on its proprietary “Relative Strength” approach. The stocks are equally weighted, though their weights may fluctuate between reconstitution dates for the index.
The index is reconstituted every January, April, July and October. Operating expenses for the ETF are 0.58%.
WisdomTree Introduces 2 New Core ETFs
WisdomTree has introduced two core ETFs: the WisdomTree International Efficient Core Fund (NTSI), Emerging Markets Efficient Core Fund (NTSE) on the NYSE, with expense ratios of 0.26% and 0.32% respectively.
In addition, the firm has renamed the the WisdomTree 90/60 U.S. Balanced Fund as the WisdomTree U.S. Efficient Core Fund (NTSX), which combines an allocation of 90% equities and 10% short-term fixed income with a 60% Treasury futures overlay to help boost capital efficiency and reduce volatility. The ETF has a 0.20% expense ratio.
