Hartford Funds expanded on its line of actively managed fixed income exchange traded funds with a core, diversified fixed income strategy to achieve a more “competitive” total return.
On Thursday, Hartford Funds launched the Hartford Total Return Bond ETF (NYSEArca: HTRB). HTRB has a 0.39% expense ratio.
The Total Return Bond ETF is subadvised by Wellington Management’s team, including Joseph F. Marvan, Senior Managing Director and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, Campe Goodman, Senior Managing Director and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager, and Robert D. Burn, Managing Director and Fixed Income Portfolio Manager.
Hartford Funds Head of Product Darek Wojnar told ETF Trends they are focused on serving their clients with a choice of investment strategies delivered in structures that support a variety of business models for their clients.
“Many of our advisor clients seek to access both systematic and active strategies via exchange-traded funds, offering them a choice of investments and structures to construct solutions designed to benefit their investor clients,” Wojnar said. “Hartford Funds is committed to delivering both our multifactor capabilities and some of the active fixed income capabilities offered by our sub-advisers, Wellington Management Company LLP and Schroder Investment Management North America Inc., via ETF structures.”
HTRB, along with Hartford’s other existing Active FI ETFs (HCOR, HQBD), offers the established expertise of Wellington Management, a world-class institutional asset manager.
Wojnar said each of these strategies is managed by teams with years and depth of experience in managing similar strategies for the most discerning institutional clients.
“Hartford Funds has partnered with our Wellington colleagues to design these capabilities, while providing high quality investment design, oversight, structuring, capital markets, and client support services accompanying all ETFs offered by our firm,” he said.
HTRB will try to generate competitive total return with income as a secondary objective. The active bond ETF will invest primarily in investment-grade debt, along with up to 20% in securities rated below investment-grade.
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Debt exposure include securities issued or guaranteed as to principal or interest by the U.S. Government, its agencies or instrumentalities; non-convertible debt securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. corporations or other issuers (including foreign governments or corporations); asset-backed and mortgage-related securities; and securities issued or guaranteed as to principal or interest by a sovereign government or one of its agencies or political subdivisions, supranational entities such as development banks, non-U.S. corporations, banks or bank holding companies, or other foreign issuers, according to the prospectus sheet. The active fund may also incorporate derivatives to manage portfolio risk.
“Advisors recognize that fixed income offerings are a critical foundation of an investment portfolio,” Vernon Meyer, Chief Investment Officer of Hartford Funds, said in a note. “We created another fixed income ETF to offer investors more options to optimize their fixed income exposure across all market sectors, which may help them to diversify their investments and reach their long-term goals.”
Hartford Funds currently have two additional active FI ETF strategies with effective registration statements, awaiting completion of the listing process: Hartford Municipal Opportunities ETF and Hartford Schroders Tax-Aware Bond ETF.
Wojnar said they also continue to evaluate other opportunities within both the multifactor and active FI space, based on clients’ feedback.
“First and foremost, Hartford Funds is focused on the end investor experience,” he said. “We partner with our advisor clients to help them offer solutions that their clients can understand in their own human terms, and seek to help them meet their individual long-term investment goals.”
For more information on new fund products, visit our new ETFs category.