The folks at a $5.1-billion-AUM (as of December 31) boutique within an insurer's $650-plus-billion-AUM (as of September 30) asset management arm recently added three more funds. The boutique now offers 28 funds in total.

Today, Sal Bruno, chief investment officer of New York Life Investments' IndexIQ, and Ian Forrest, head of IndexIQ, unveil a trio of new IndexIQ ETFs: the IQ U.S. Large Cap R&D Leaders ETF (LRND on the NYSE Arca), the IQ U.S. Mid Cap R&D Leaders ETF (MRND), and the IQ Global Equity R&D Leaders ETF (WRND). All three passive funds, which launched today, are designed to invest in companies that consistently reinvest in their own research and development.

LRND comes with an expense ratio of 14 basis points, while MRND costs 16 bps and WRND costs 18 bps. (All three expense ratios bake in a 1 bps fee waiver that IndexIQ has promised to offer through August 31.)

LRND tracks the IQ U.S. Large Cap R&D Leaders Index, MRND tracks the IS U.S. Mid Cap R&D Leaders Index, and WRND tracks the IQ Global Equity R&D Leaders Index. (All three indexes debuted on November 30.) IndexIQ Advisors LLC serves as the invesment advisor to all three funds, IndexIQ LLC as the index provider, and Greg Barrato (senior vice president at IndexIQ) and James Harrison (vice president) as the PMs.

"Investors have often had a difficult time assigning an accurate value to the R&D spending and thus have tended to undervalue its potential benefits," Bruno states. "This suite was designed to provide investors and advisors with a powerful new set of tools for adding the most innovative companies, and the companies that are investing in future innovations with the potential to unlock future value, to their equity portfolios."

The new funds' other service providers include: Alps Distributors, Inc. as distributor; Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) as administrator, custodian, securities lending agent, and transfer agent; Chapman and Cutler LLP as counsel; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent accountant; and Solactive AG as benchmark administrator and index calculator. 

Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE