Russell Investments: The Next Active ETF Star?

Russell Investments is taking their investment market share and attempting to broaden their horizons through exchange traded funds (ETFs) with a bevy of new ideas.

Russell has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for exemptions in an effort to enter into the actively managed ETF segment of the industry. Some of the many exemptions include allowing funds of funds operated by Russell to buy shares of the ETFs in amounts beyond what is normally allowed under SEC guidelines and allowing ETFs launched by Russell to use the firm’s own indexes, according to Index Universe.

Russell is seeking to create index-based ETFs, as well.

Some of the other requests in the filing include:

• The funds could cover domestic stocks, international stocks or fixed income
• The holdings of each fund for the prior day, whether passive or actively managed, will be made available on a daily basis
• Basic operation of ETFs

So far this year we’ve seen a number of new and old names file for actively managed ETFs. Allianz, Claymore, State Street and Vanguard have all sought the OK from the SEC. BlackRock may dive in, and Grail Advisors launched their first active ETF earlier this year.

For more stories on actively managed ETFs, visit our actively managed cateogry.