Hartford Funds is expanding its lineup with two actively managed exchange traded funds backed by strategies from Wellington Management Company to help fixed-income investors navigate a changing market environment. Wellington is where John Bogle, the Vanguard founder cut his teeth on money management. It seems like investment management is coming full circle with this partnership as a tenured insurance company and a legendary management firm partner on new ETF offerings.
On Wednesday, Hartford Funds rolled out the Hartford Corporate Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HCOR) and the Hartford Quality Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HQBD). HCOR comes with a 0.44% expense ratio and HQBD has a 0.39% expense ratio.
“In response to advisors’ call for a broad range of investment options, we’ve decided to further diversify our ETF lineup and enter the actively managed ETF space with two fixed income products,” Vernon Meyer, Chief Investment Officer of Hartford Funds, said in a note. “By fusing our ETF capabilities with the investment skill of Wellington Management, we are looking to maximize the value Hartford Funds can offer to investors.”
The two active ETFs are subadvised by institutional investment manager Wellington Management, which also subadvises a number of mutual funds for Hartford. Craig A. Gainey, Senior Managing Director, Partner, and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager/Credit Analyst, will manage HCOR.
The Hartford Corporate Bond ETF will try to provide total return with income as a secondary objective by investing in U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade rated fixed-income securities issued by corporate entities.