Many are familiar with USAA investment management company as a historied financial planner that has helped out millions of people, and now, the money manager has adapted its years of experience into exchange traded fund strategies.
USAA has already invested over $6 billion into ETF-related products in constructing diversified investment portfolios and pairing the ETFs with other types of products.
Through their hands-on experience with investing in ETFs, the company has stepped out with their own ETF products, including USAA Core Short-Term Bond ETF (NYSEArca: USTB), USAA Core Intermediate-Term Bond ETF (NYSEArca: UITB), USAA MSCI USA Value Momentum Blend Index ETF (NYSEArca: ULVM), USAA MSCI USA Small Cap Value Momentum Blend Index ETF (NYSEArca: USVM), USAA MSCI International Value Momentum Blend Index ETF (NYSEArca: UIVM) and USAA MSCI Emerging Markets Value Momentum Blend Index ETF (NYSEArca: UEVM).
“We found that there was opportunities in the market. We thought we could take our expertise and experience and bring a new product to market to build core diversified portfolios,” Lance Humphrey, Portfolio Manger for USAA, said at the Charles Schwab Impact Conference.
On the fixed-income side, USAA has focused on their “bread and butter,” bringing their credit, taxable income strategies to the ETF space through USTB and UITB. The new actively managed fixed income ETFs incorporate USAA’s decades of experience in Core Bond categories, with the USAA Core Intermediate-Term Bond ETF focusing on high current income without undue risk to principal and the USAA Core Short-Term Bond ETF targeting high current income consistent with preservation of capital.
Meanwhile, the new smart beta lineup focuses on the value and momentum factors, identifying stocks with attractive valuations and positive price momentum and weighting the two factors in such a way to help investors diversify against the risk of individual holdings.
The smart beta ETFs use “value and momentum – two factors we believe to be a core part of an investment portfolio, and pairing them in a way to balance risk,” Humphrey said.
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