Thrivent Asset Management is seeking exemptive relief that would allow it to offer ETF share classes of mutual funds and mutual fund share classes of ETFs, an application filed Aug. 28 with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows.
With the filing, which also listed Thrivent Mutual Funds and Thrivent ETF Trust as applicants, Thrivent Asset Management joins a long list of applicants seeking exemptive relief relating to a multiclass structure.
Thrivent Asset Management is a subsidiary of Thrivent, a diversified financial services company.
Thrivent Asset Management currently offers just one ETF, the Thrivent Small-Mid Cap ESG ETF, a spokeswoman confirmed.
“Thrivent continuously evaluates our investment products to ensure our solutions meet the needs of our clients and are competitive in the marketplace,” the spokeswoman said. “We’ve filed this exemptive application with the SEC in anticipation of exploring the development of new and enhanced products.”
Like others before, the application filed by Thrivent cited an exemptive order granted by the SEC to Vanguard Group in 2000. The order permitted Vanguard “to offer certain index-based open-end management investment companies with mutual fund classes and exchange-traded classes,” the filing said.
Relying on that and subsequent exemptive orders “Vanguard has become a major sponsor of index-based ETFs,” the filing said. A patent obtained by Vanguard expired in May 2023.
As of June 30, Thrivent Asset Management had $68.4 billion in assets under management, the spokeswoman said.
