Financial advisors are becoming increasingly interested in exchange traded funds (ETFs), but many don’t completely understand them. So, some providers have been stepping forward to deliver a more thorough education.

The latest is State Street Global Advisors, which has launched SPDR University, a website/college all about their ETFs, products, services, portfolio strategies and practice management.

An online training program beats having to sit through seminars, and advisors can do these around their own schedules. David Hoffman for InvestmentNews adds that SPDR University also provides financial intermediaries with the opportunity to "aggregate" continuing education credits in fractional increments. It can track when advisors use materials that have been approved for CE credits and then tell the user when credits have been earned.

Other providers such as Vanguard and Barclays are responding in a similar way to the proliferation of ETFs and the interest that is building up.

Barclays is sending a group of 40 advisors to Harvard University to hear professors speak about investing and practice management, in the hopes that eventually BGI on Campus will become a continuing program. Vanguard launched an online tool a few weeks ago that they described as an "education system."

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