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Any Change in Exchange-Traded Funds?

Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, crop up from time to time as being a product whose time has (nearly) come. But are you using them in your practice? And are you seeing others do so?

The Investment Company Institute (ICI) reports assets of all exchange-traded funds rose in May by $59.77 billion (2.1%) to $2.90 trillion, and that over the past 12 months, ETF assets increased $693.90 billion, or 31.5%.

ETFs offer intra-day trading, no early redemption fees or minimum holding periods, and many have a passive investment focus – all of which have led a number of providers to offer ETF-centric platforms that purport to have significantly lower fees compared with the typical mutual fund-laden 401(k).

And yet, by most accounts, they have been slow to catch on with 401(k)s – in some cases possibly because of the very differences that provide those pricing advantages.

This week we’d like to know if you are using ETFs in the programs you advise – and if you are seeing them offered in the prospects on which you are bidding. And if not, what seems to be holding them back?

Reply to this week’s NAPA Net Reader Poll at https://www.research.net/r/5X7RGNL.

And we will, of course, wrap it all up for you on Friday.

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