Investment Product and Service Launches

SSGA Adds New ESG ETF

State Street Global Advisors has launched the SPDR S&P 500 ESG ETF (EFIV).

Providing investors an opportunity to tap into environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing at the core of their portfolio with an expense ratio of 10 basis points (bps), EFIV enhances both SPDR’s ESG and S&P 500 exchange-traded fund (ETF) offerings, seeking to help investors incorporate ESG while achieving a risk and return profile comparable to the S&P 500. EFIV seeks to track the S&P 500 ESG Index, which is designed to measure the performance of securities meeting certain sustainability criteria (i.e., criteria related to ESG factors), while maintaining a similar overall industry group weight as the S&P 500 Index.

“ESG investing is approaching a critical inflection point. The collective call for change is growing louder and investors are increasingly taking a stand through their investment choices,” says Sue Thompson, head of SPDR Americas Distribution at State Street Global Advisors. “EFIV meets growing demand for cost-effective solutions that help put ESG investing into action by offering investors an ETF that seeks to track a more sustainable version of one of the most renowned benchmarks in the world. As ESG factor-based strategies pivot from check-the-box components to must-have ingredients in every portfolio, State Street remains committed to providing a broader range of ESG solutions.”

“S&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) has a longstanding relationship with State Street’s SPDR business that dates back more than 27 years, and we’re excited to expand this ongoing collaboration today,” adds Dan Draper, chief executive officer at S&P DJI. “We’re delighted that State Street has licensed the S&P 500 ESG Index for its new fund, incorporating ESG factors into the core S&P 500 benchmark, which is widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”

Constituents of the S&P 500 are eligible for inclusion in the index, except for companies that: are involved with tobacco-related products and services, based on certain levels of production, revenue or ownership; are involved in controversial weapons, including cluster weapons, landmines, biological or chemical weapons, depleted uranium weapons, white phosphorus weapons or nuclear weapons, or hold certain ownership stakes in a company involved in these activities; have a United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) score in the bottom 5% of all UNGC-scored companies globally; have an S&P DJI ESG Score that falls within the worst 25% from each Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) industry group; or do not have coverage for tobacco- and controversial weapons-related involvement from the index’s third-party data providers for such information; a UNGC score determined by Arabesque; or an S&P DJI ESG Score.

Investment Metrics Issues Fee Benchmarking Solution

Investment Metrics (IM) has newly released its Fee Analyzer, which provides investment consultants, asset owners and asset managers a universal fee benchmarking platform.

Since its introduction, many asset managers have adopted Fee Analyzer, and the newest release has readily been embraced by institutional investment consultants such as RVK Inc. and Standard Valuations Inc. 

The latest release allows investment consultants to monitor fee changes, analyze fee dispersion and assess fees against managers’ performance within their book of business. The new release also allows both investment consultants and asset managers to benchmark fees against their peers. 

“The Fee Analyzer offers a more nuanced way to monitor and analyze fees across our client base. It also provides a greater level of transparency into actual fees paid and gives us an additional tool to negotiate better fee outcomes,” says Joe Ledgerwood, CFA, director of Manager Research, RVK Inc. “We are pleased to find tools such as this one that can help us more effectively evaluate manager fees against their industry peers and their performance.” 

“Since Fee Analyzer’s release in 2019, our investment consultant and asset owner clients have been asking us how they can benchmark fees across their investment portfolios to ensure optimal fees across investment styles or managers,” says Sanjoy Chatterjee, chief strategy officer of Investment Metrics. “This new release addresses the specific needs for investment consultants and asset owners, giving them unparalleled insights in fee benchmarking. We anticipate consultants will leverage Fee Analyzer to gain deeper comparative knowledge of their portfolio fees.” 

Fee data are extracted from Investment Metric’s Portfolio Analytics and Reporting platform, which is used by leading institutional investment consultants and asset owners, covering over $10 trillion in assets under advisement.