Franklin Templeton Investments introduced three new passive exchange traded funds to its Franklin LibertyShares lineup — Franklin FTSE Saudi Arabia ETF (FLSA), Franklin FTSE South Africa ETF (FLZA) and Franklin FTSE Latin America ETF (FLLA).
All are linked to market-cap weighted foreign stock indexes and seek results that closely respond to those indexes before fees and expenses.
"Many investors are looking to go beyond broad-based emerging markets or developed markets portfolios to capture the differences in performance that individual countries or regions can experience at different times based on a variety of market events," said Patrick O'Connor, head of global ETFs, in a statement. "We offer investors access to a large proportion of this universe in order to make these tactical allocations using passive ETFs."
Franklin FTSE Saudi Arabia ETF (FLSA) seeks results that closely correspond to the performance of the FTSE Saudi Arabia Capped Index, representing Saudi Arabian large- and mid-cap stocks. FLSA has a net expense ratio of 0.39%.
Franklin FTSE South Africa ETF (FLZA), which has a net expense ratio of 0.19%, is tied to the performance of the FTSE/JSE South Africa Capped Index, representing South African large- and mid-cap stocks.
Franklin FTSE Latin America ETF (FLLA) also has a net expense ratio of 0.19%. and tracks the FTSE Latin America Capped Index, representing Latin American large- and mid-cap stocks.
Franklin LibertyShares has more than $2 billion in assets under management globally as of September 30.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments Launches a Muni Bond Strategic Beta ETF
Columbia Threadneedle Investments expanded its strategic beta ETF offerings with the launch of Columbia Multi-Sector Municipal Income ETF (MUST).
MUST tracks the Beta Advantage Multi-Sector Municipal Bond Index, which has exposure to five sectors of the municipal bond market using a rules-based approach to bond selection. MUST's custom index was designed by Columbia Threadneedle's municipal fixed-income team and is administered by Bloomberg Index Services Limited.
MUST is intended to serve as a core municipal bond allocation in investors' portfolios but can also complement traditional core holdings to deliver higher tax-exempt income and risk-adjusted return potential than traditional benchmark products. It has a total annual fund operating expense of 0.28%.
InterGen Data to Provide "Predictive Life Event" Capabilities on Orion Advisor Platform
InterGen Data, Inc., an AI-driven technology company that helps financial services firms identify when clients are likely to have an important life event occur, announced a new integration with Orion Advisor Services.
With the integration, advisors can incorporate InterGen's predictive data with Orion alerts and workflows, such as marketing campaigns, calendaring, and live advisor audio/video calls.
According to InterGen founder and CEO Robert Kirk, the integration will give advisors the ability to see the potential impact of certain life events on their clients' portfolios.
"Knowing what is likely to happen, when it's likely to happen, and what the financial impact could be, is very powerful," Kirk said in a statement. "We saw a gap in many of the available financial planning platforms where they don't account for any future life event expenditures (health or wealth) in either a predictive and/or chronological manner."
Advisors will be notified via Amazon's Alexa when the advisors clients are conducting online searches about certain life events.
The advisor will be told what the life event searched for was, what specific criteria was included, and what the financial impact could be. Advisors can also use InterGen's robo advisor module, Digital Advice via Demographics ("DAViD"), to show their clients a cash-flow forecast model; advisors can utilize that widget in their own portal.
Betterment for Advisors Adds Mutual Funds ACATS Process to Platform
Betterment for Advisors announced an additional feature to the platform – a Mutual Funds ACATS process.
This enhancement gives advisors the ability to use ACATS to transfer clients' mutual fund investments from external accounts into Betterment for Advisors.
