SEI Investments on Wednesday announced the launch of its first exchange-traded funds, a suite of four U.S. large-cap stock funds that will use a proprietary factor-based approach.
The new funds are the SEI Enhanced U.S. Large Cap Quality Factor ETF, SEI Enhanced U.S. Large Cap Momentum Factor ETF, SEI Enhanced U.S. Large Cap Value Factor ETF and the SEI Enhanced Low Volatility U.S. Large Cap ETF, according to a company news release.
The ETFs are actively managed by SEI's internal investment team, and will each have a management fee of 15 basis points, the release said.
In entering the ETF space, SEI is following a path taken by many other asset managers before it, said Ben Johnson, director of global exchange-traded fund research for Morningstar, citing Capital Group, manager of the American Funds, as a prominent recent example of that trend.
"No different than any of its peers, SEI has little choice but to step into the ETF arena," Mr. Johnson said in an email, adding that asset managers are launching ETFs for the same reason that musicians are launching new albums on Spotify. "The preferred means of delivering their art has shifted from older technologies to new ones."
As of March 31, SEI managed, advised or administered about $1.3 trillion in assets, the release said.
