Updated with correction.
Despite their allure to some investors, exchange-traded funds have failed to attract investors in an all-ETF format for target-date funds.
On May 27, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management liquidated the assets of its X-trackers target-date fund series consisting of five all-ETF funds, which represented about $136 million of the company's $17.4 billion in total ETF assets.
“Deutsche AWM aims to be a leading specialty provider of ETFs in the U.S., by providing differentiated and compelling products to investors,” Fiona Bassett, head of passive management, Americas, wrote in an e-mail. “After carefully evaluating multiple factors, we made the decision to liquidate our target-date ETF suite, as we believe they did not fit well within our overall strategy.”
Deutsche AWM's departure from the ETF target-date fund market reduces to zero the number of all-ETF target-date funds.
In October, BlackRock Inc. liquidated the assets of its all-ETF iShares Target Date series, which contained 10 separate all-ETF funds.
When it announced the closing of the series in August, BlackRock's iShares unit said, in a news release, the decision was “based on ongoing product reviews and client feedback and limited investor interest in the funds.”
