What You Need to Know
- The wirehouse's ETF platform will launch later this year.
- It says the platform will “support ETFs across businesses, asset classes, jurisdictions and brands.”
- Several holdouts have entered the ETF arena in recent years.
Morgan Stanley Investment Management plans to introduce its own exchange-traded funds this year.
The firm has made a “strategic decision to launch an ETF platform in 2022,” said Dan Simkowitz, managing director and head of asset management at the wirehouse, in an internal memo, shared with ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday.
He said a “first class ETF platform will further enable” Morgan Stanley to match its “investment capabilities with the diverse set of investment vehicles our clients increasingly demand.”
As the popularity of ETFs has continued to climb, several firms have entered the segment over the past couple of years, leaving few holdouts remaining.
Capital Group, one of the last major holdouts among asset managers, took the plunge in February, launching six actively managed ETFs on the New York Stock Exchange.
Morgan Stanley plans to offer a “multi-asset ETF platform that covers active and systematic strategies,” Simkowitz said, noting the offerings “will also complement our leadership in separately managed accounts,” the “mutual fund history at MSIM and Eaton Vance and our private fund platform that now has more than $200 billion in alternatives capital for clients.”