Marie Dzanis, senior vice president and head of funds and intermediary sales and services at Northern Trust’s (NasdaqGS: NTRS) FlexShares unit joined ETF Trends Publisher Tom Lydon at the ETF.com Inside ETFs conference in Hollywood, Fla. to talk about bond ETFs and how advisors can better meet client needs with some fixed income funds.
“When you consider evolving investor needs, the options in ETFs are very modest in comparison to how many there are with fixed income versus equities,” said Dzanis. “We’re looking for better solutions all the way around.”
Dzanis highlighted the FlexShares Credit‐Scored US Corporate Bond Index Fund (NasdaqGM: SKOR), which debuted in November. SKOR tracks the Northern Trust Credit-Scored US Corporate Bond Index, which focuses issues from companies with quality characteristics such as strength in management efficiency, profitability.
SKOR’s underlying index only includes issues with at least $500 million outstanding. SKOR intentionally excludes smaller, illiquid issues to enhance its liquidity and transparency profile.