According to Laurent Boukobza, vice-president and ETF strategist with Mackenzie Investments, offering an ETF series allows mutual fund issuers to “reduce some of the fixed costs associated with maintaining two separate structures. It also lets them present a performance track record for the strategy before it’s launched as an ETF series.”
ETF series also make certain strategies more accessible to investors, he added.
“Investors using discount brokerage platforms can easily buy an ETF series, whereas purchasing a traditional mutual fund on the same platform can be more complicated,” Boukobza said.
But there’s more nuance to these products.
Operational and fee concerns
Like non-listed mutual fund series, ETF series share the operating costs associated with investor purchases and redemptions within the fund — costs that don’t affect standalone…
