DFA Converts 2 More Active Mutual Funds to ETFs

DFA now has a total of nine actively managed equity ETFs — it launched three core equity ETFs last year — with a total of more than $40 billion in combined assets under management. The firm plans to launch fixed income ETFs later this year. DFA is one of the last major asset managers to offer ETFs. But unlike some other asset managers that were also late in entering the ETF market, all its ETFs are fully transparent.

Its co-CEO Dave Butler told ThinkAdvisor in July that the firm's addition of ETFs to its fund lineup was driven by requests from advisors but made possible by the Securities and Exchange Commission's new ETF rule. The rule allows greater flexibility for the construction of in-kind baskets of securities and assets that ETFs use to purchase and redeem large aggregations of shares (creation units).

Butler also told ThinkAdvisor that DFA is also developing a special managed account product that will require a relatively low minimum of around $500,000 compared with its current minimum of more than $20 million.