Dana Emery, Chair and CEO of Dodge and Cox Funds, has decided to retire on December 31, 2025. Effective January 1, 2026, David Hoeft will succeed her as the Chair while continuing his CIO role. Roger Kuo will succeed as the Chair while continuing to serve as President of the firm.
Harbor Capital plans to launch eight subadvised ETFs across several asset classes in the coming months, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
There will be three subadvisors across the eight funds, all of whom already manage money for Harbor across existing vehicles. The new ETFs and their subadvisors are:
| ETF name | Subadvisor | Management Team |
| Harbor Emerging Markets Select Equity ETF | C Worldwide Asset Management | A four-person team headed by Aman Kalsi. |
| Harbor Emerging Markets Equity ETF | Earnest Partners | Paul E. Viera |
| Harbor International Equity ETF | Earnest Partners | Paul E. Viera |
| Harbor Mid Cap Core ETF | Earnest Partners | Paul E. Viera |
| Harbor Mid Cap Value ETF | Earnest Partners | Paul E. Viera |
| Harbor SMID Cap Core ETF | Earnest Partners | Paul E. Viera |
| Harbor SMID Cap Value ETF | Earnest Partners | Paul E. Viera |
| Harbor Transformative Technologies ETF | Jennison Associates | Nicolas Rubinstein and two co-managers. |
Earnest Partners’ Viera also manages the $175.7m Harbor Mid Cap fund (HMCLX) and $2.6bn Harbor Small Cap Value fund (HASCX).
Lazard Emerging Markets Opportunities ETF, the Lazard Equity Megatrends ETF, the Lazard International Dynamic Equity ETF, the Lazard Japanese Equity ETF, and the Lazard Next Gen Technologies ETF are in registration. The ETFs are expected to launch in late 2025. Expenses have not been stated.
Thornburg Funds is offering two new ETFs, International Equity ETF and International Growth ETF. Both funds are actively managed with the International Equity ETF and International Growth ETF expenses at .65% and .70%, respectively. While the International Equity ETF and International Growth Fund ETF will both invest in companies tied to developed markets outside the United States, the International Growth ETF will focus on companies that will offer more potential for growth.
Vanguard announced plans to introduce its Vanguard Short Duration Bond ETF (VSDB), an active fixed-income ETF that will be managed by Vanguard Fixed Income Group. The ETF will be launched in early April of this year. Vanguard Short Duration Bond. The new ETF will offer diversified exposure to primarily short-duration U.S. investment-grade bonds – including some exposure to structured products, such as asset-backed securities – with the flexibility to invest in below-investment-grade debt and emerging markets to seek additional yield The ETF will have an estimated expense ratio of 0.15%.
Small wins for investors
DFA has reduced the expense ratio on several of its ETFs by three to five basis points. That’s either a chump change or a 10% fee reduction, depending on your perspective.
Old Wine, New Bottles
But let’s be clear, America. There’s nothing green about these new bottles. Nosiree, we have scrubbed the stench of environmental responsibility away from each and every one of them. A really nice snapshot of corporate America’s retreat from sustainable investing was provided by Tania Mitra at Citywire:
Only 10 new sustainable funds hit the shelves in 2024, the lowest number in 10 years. Closures and departures (whereby a strategy moves away from a mandate), surpassed launches for the first time as well. In total, 71 sustainable funds closed (60 liquidated, 11 merged) and 24 funds moved away from ESG mandates, primarily by dropping ESG or other related terms from their names. At the end of 2024, 587 sustainable funds were offered in the US market. (“Sustainable funds suffer record outflows, 24 strategies ditch ESG name,” Citywire.com, 1/24/25)
Morningstar’s Hortense Bioy attributes the outflows to “mediocre performance and high interest rates,” only admitting late in the article that “the US political climate” played a role (“US Sustainable Funds Suffer Another Year of Outflows,” 1/16/2025). The second largest outflows, per Morningstar, were suffered by an ultra-cheap (15 bps), tax-efficient, top-performing fund (iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF which led its peer group by 300 bps/year in 2023 and 2024) which might highlight the forces beyond performance.
In any case, as of February 10, 2025, the S&P 500 ESG Index becomes the S&P 500 Scored & Screened Index.
Northern Funds recently announced the decision to convert the Northern Global Sustainability Index Fund to the World Selection Index Fund. The retreat takes place on February 3, 2025. It appears that the World Selection Index will be an … index of indexes? The fragmentary information available suggests that it’s an amalgam of five indexes, three of which have SRI focuses, one of which is sector rotation and one is factor-based?
Apart from that …
Lazard International Equity Advantage Portfolio will be converted into an exchange-traded fund on or about April 30, 2025. The Acquiring Portfolio’s portfolio management team is expected to be composed of Paul Moghtader, Taras Ivanenko, Peter Kashanek, Alex Lai, Kurt Livermore, Ciprian Marin, Craig Scholl, and Susanne Willumsen, the Acquired Portfolio’s current portfolio managers. They hope for lower costs, the potential for increased tax efficiency, intraday trading, and full daily holdings transparency.
On or around March 25, 2025, Macquarie Tax-Free USA Short Term ETF will modify the principal investment strategy by removing the sustainability restrictions and will remove the related principal risks disclosure.
Effective on or about April 4, 2025, WisdomTree PutWrite Strategy Fund (PUTW) becomes the index-tracking WisdomTree Equity Premium Income Fund (WTPI).
Off to the dustbin of history …
Catalyst/Millburn Dynamic Commodity Strategy Fund will be liquidated on or about March 24.
The Board of Trustees of DoubleLine Funds Trust has approved a plan of liquidation for the DoubleLine Multi-Asst Trend Fund which is expected to take place on or about February 28, 2025. The trend has not been their friend, with the fund turning $10,000 at inception into $9300. Their average peer is up 15.5% in the same 47-month period. Neither manager, including founder Jeff Gundlach, opted to place any of their own money into the fund.
Fidelity Advisor Global Real Estate Fund is expected to liquidate on or about May 9, 2025.
On July 25, 2025, Fidelity International Capital Appreciation Fund will absorb Fidelity Advisor International Capital Appreciation Fund.
I know that the news is all about “the end of globalization,” but I didn’t know they meant … the following Global X funds will disappear because their assets are “quite small” and “not growing”: Global X Health Care Covered Call & Growth ETF, Global X Financials Covered Call & Growth ETF, Global X MSCI Emerging Markets Covered Call ETF, Global X Nasdaq 100 ESG Covered Call ETF, and Global X S&P 500 ESG Covered Call ETF
The Kayne Anderson Renewable Infrastructure Fund was liquidated on or around January 31, 2025. Virtually the entire portfolio is invested in utility stocks, about a 2:1 overweight, and 8% is in industrials, a 5:1 underweight. The fund lost money in three of its four full years of operation: 2021, 2022 and 2023. Just to be clear, this Kayne Anderson is not the same as Kayne Anderson Rudnick / KAR.
On February 24, 2025, the IGMP (formerly Litman Gregory) Alternative Strategies Fund will merge into the High Income Fund.
John Hancock Global Thematic Opportunities and Fundamental Global Franchise Funds will be liquidated on or about March 28.
Legal & General Commodity Strategy Fund will be liquidated on or about February 14.
Mercer Global Low Volatility Equity Fund will undergo “orderly liquidation” on March 3, 2025.
Swan Defined Risk Emerging Markets Fund, Swan Defined Risk Foreign Fund, and Swan Defined Risk U.S. Small Cap Fund will be liquidated on or about February 28.
