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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.
