Parnassus International Equity Fund is in registration. The fund, managed by Ken Ryan, CFA, will be a large cap fund that invests in equity securities of non-U.S. companies. Expenses have not been stated.
Profunds has launched its Ether ProFund. The fund does not invest directly in ether, but rather ether future contracts. According to the prospectus, the fund has a net expense ratio of 1.46%, and Alexander Ilyasov and George Banian will serve as the portfolio managers.
Effective February 1, Vanguard reduced fees on 168 mutual funds and exchange-traded share classes across 87 funds and ETFs. The overall fee reduction is expected to save investors $350 million in 2025.
On a similar note, Vanguard introduced and launched its Ultra-Short Treasury ETF (VGUS) and 0-3 Month Treasury Bill ETF (VBIL). The pair of ETFs will be managed by Vanguard Fixed Income Group veteran, Josh Barrickman, Co-Head of Fixed Income Group Indexing in the Americas. The pair of new ETFs will offer exposure to the U.S. Treasury securities, have short durations and low volatility, and are expected to have tight bid-ask spreads. VGUS will track the Bloomberg Short Treasury Index, which includes U.S. Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds with less than 12 months until maturity. VBIL will track the Bloomberg US Treasury Bills 0-3 Months Index. Both ETFs will have an estimated expense ratio of 0.07%.
Tweedy, Browne Insider + Value ETF is in registration. The fund’s investment strategy will invest in U.S. and non-U.S. companies’ securities that Tweedy, Browne Company LLC believes are undervalued, and where either the company’s “insiders” have been actively purchasing the company’s equity securities and/or the company is conducting “opportunistic share buybacks. Tweedy, Browne Company LLC serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC serves as the investment sub-adviser to the Fund. Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses are stated at 0.80%.
T. Rowe Price Financials ETF, T. Rowe Price Global Equity ETF, T. Rowe Price Health Care ETF, T. Rowe Price International Equity Research ETF, and T. Rowe Price Natural Resources ETF are in registration. T. Rowe Price Financials ETF will be managed by Greg Locraft and Matt Snowling. T. Rowe Price Global Equity ETF will be managed by Peter J Bales. T. Rowe Price Health Care ETF will be managed by Sal Rais and Jon Davis Wood. T. Rowe Price International Equity Research ETF will be managed by Mirza Kamran Baig, Susan Leigh Innes, Tetsuji Inoue, Tobias Fabian Mueller, Sridhar Nishtala, and Jason Nogueira. T. Rowe Price Natural Resources ETF will be managed by Richard de los Reyes, Shinwoo Kim, Priyal Maniar, John Corbin Qian, and Thomas Alexander Shelmerdine. Expenses have not been stated for any of the newly registered ETFs.
Small Wins for Investors
Effective as of March 21, 2025, Intrepid Capital and Intrepid Income eliminated their 2.00% redemption fee. Since redemption fees actually make sense – they discourage short-term trading to penalize investors who try to pop into and out of the fund – I’m always ambivalent about calling their elimination a “win.” Still, it’s a necessary business decision to try to keep small funds attractive to investors.
Pzena International Small Cap Value Fund reduced its operating expense limit from 1.17% to 1.03% lowered the management fee from 1.00% to 0.95%, effective February 1, 2025.
Closings … and other inconveniences
Effective as of the close of business on March 17, 2025, Counterpoint Tactical Income Fund will be closed to (most) new investors.
Effective April 1, 2025, JPM Morgan will soft-close the $10 billion, four-star Undiscovered Managers Behavioral Value Fund, sub-advised by Fuller & Thaler. Fuller & Thaler’s other small-cap fund, FullerThaler Behavioral Small-Cap Equity, is also closed.
Old Wine, New Bottles
Effective February 24, 2025, American Beacon EAM International Small Cap Fund became American Beacon IMC International Small Cap Fund with the replacement of the former sub-advisor, EAM Investors, by The Informed Momentum Company.
Somewhat less core: On April 30, 2025, the Goldman Sachs Nasdaq‑100 Core Premium Income ETF’s name will change to the Goldman Sachs Nasdaq‑100 Premium Income ETF and the Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Core Premium Income ETF’s name will change to the Goldman Sachs S&P 500 Premium Income ETF. At the same time, the funds will change their strategies to allow the managers to invest more of the portfolio outside of their benchmark indexes, hence the disappearance of the word “Core.”
Effective February 28, 2025, North Square Advisory Research Small Cap Value Fund was rechristened North Square Select Small Cap Fund.
Polen Bank Loan Fund will be reorganized into the Polen Floating Rate Income ETF effective March 21. The Polen Floating Rate Income ETF will have identical investment objectives and fundamental investment policies, the same portfolio managers, and substantially similar investment strategies as the mutual fund. Polen Credit feels that by changing the Fund from a mutual fund into an ETF, Polen Credit believes shareholders in the Polen Floating Rate Income ETF could benefit from lower overall net expenses, increased flexibility to buy and sell shares at current market prices, increased portfolio holdings transparency and the potential for enhanced tax efficiency.
Effective February 17, 2025, the STKD Bitcoin & Gold ETF was changed to the STKd 100% Bitcoin & 100% Gold ETF. STKD is short for “Stacked,” whose funds offer “access to two assets simultaneously, stacked on top of each other.” It’s “a new way to hedge fund.” I’m not sure why they’re becoming STKd.
Off to the Dustbin of History
On February 7, 2025, AB Total Return Bond Portfolio was merged into the AB Core Plus Bond ETF.
Allspring Global Long/Short Equity Fund has closed to new investors and will be liquidated on or about April 7, 2025.
Amplify BlackSwan Tech & Treasury ETF and Amplify Thematic All-Stars ETF will become former funds at market close on March 5, 2025.
Ashmore Emerging Markets Low Duration Fund was liquidated on or about February 7.
The Beacon Accelerated Return Strategy Fund will be closed and liquidated on or about March 28, 2025.
The $4 million CNIC ICE U.S. Carbon Neutral Power Futures Index ETF will, for failure to generate assets, be liquidated on February 20, 2025. The fund turned $10,000 at inception into $8450 and the sole manager declined to put their money at risk with their investors.
DSS AmericaFirst Total Return Bond Fund was liquidated as of February 28.
Goldman Sachs Global Real Estate Securities Fund will be liquidated on or about April 14.
Hartford Schroders Sustainable International Core Fund will be liquidated on or about April 11, 2025.
JPMorgan Sustainable Infrastructure ETF will be liquidated on or about March 28, 2025.
Lord Abbett Climate Focused Bond Fund will be liquidated in or around the Spring of 2025.
On April 25, 2025, Macquarie Multi-Asset Income Fund (formerly, Delaware Ivy Multi-Asset Income Fund) will be consumed by its sibling, the Macquarie Balanced Fund.
Matthews Asian Growth and Income Fund will be merged into Matthews Emerging Markets Equity Fund on or about March 14, 2025. The implosion of Matthews Asia has been nothing short of stunning. The firm started 2021 with about $25 billion in AUM. Four years later, that’s down to $4 billion. Robby Greengold, one of the Morningstar analysts following Matthews, is pretty clear about the internal churn and its consequences:
Personnel turnover has been a big issue in recent months and years at Matthews International Capital Management. The firm dismissed three portfolio managers and an analyst in December 2023, and many of the remaining investment professionals took on new roles at the same time. Many other investment-team changes that occurred between the end of 2019 and early 2023 played a major role in the mid-2023 downgrade of the firm’s Parent rating to Average from Above Average.
But the extreme amount of investment-team turnover at the firm in recent years is problematic in and of itself. And due to the many portfolio managers and other departures as well as relatively limited hiring, the co-lead managers now have significantly fewer investment professionals to call on for support than they did previously.
When Andrew Foster began his transition away from Matthews 15 years ago, Robert Horrocks became co-manager of the fund. Morningstar reports that “since Horrocks became one of its managers in April 2009 through March 2024, the 5.9% annualized total return of its institutional share class lagged well behind the 7.3% of its prospectus benchmark, the MSCI AC Asia Ex Japan Index. The stylistically relevant Morningstar Asia ex-Japan Yield Factor Index gained 9.3% over the same period without much additional volatility.”
The $1 million Octane All-Cap Value Energy ETF was liquidated on February 19, 2025, having attracted no investments from its own managers and having turned $10,000 into $8500 in seven months.
Optica Rare Earths & Critical Materials ETF will cease operations and liquidate on or about March 21, 2025.
On or about March 21, 2025, Polen Bank Loan Fund will merge with and into its sibling, Polen Floating Rate Income ETF.
At the recommendation of its advisor, Plato’s Philosophy LLC, The Meet Kevin Pricing Power ETF will, “in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders,” be liquidated on February 28, 2025.
