Last year, Legg Mason lost a star fund manager, Bill Miller, who stepped down from the helm of the flagship Value Trust Fund after weak performance and asset outflows. At the end of December, Legg Mason had $627 billion in assets under management, compared to $1 trillion in 2007. [Active Manager Flameouts Drive Investors to ETFs]
“We are now focused on growing the business,” Fetting said.
In November, the firm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an actively managed fixed-income ETF that will compete with the PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy Fund ETF (NYSEArcxa: MINT). [Legg Mason Files to Launch Bond ETF]
WisdomTree recently announced a partnership with Legg Mason’s Western Asset Management to create global active fixed-income ETFs.
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Max Chen contributed to this article.