Quantcast
The MFWire
Manage Email Alerts | Sponsorships | About MFWire | Who We Are

Subscribe to MFWire.com's News Alerts [click]

Rating:iShares Boasts $2 Billion in 401k Assets Not Rated 0.0 Email Routing List Email & Route  Print Print
Wednesday, January 13, 2010

iShares Boasts $2 Billion in 401k Assets

News summary by MFWire's editors

Are ETFs breaking into 401(k) plans successfully? Industry insiders interested in that question may want to take a look at Wednesday's Wall Street Journal "Fund Track" column, where Ian Salisbury highlights iShares' efforts in the 401(k) business so far and ponders the barriers to ETFs' ascendance in the defined contribution retirement plan marketplace.

iShares parent BlackRock told the WSJ that iShares now has at least $2 billion in 401(k) assets, thanks to about $500 million in 2009 inflows. The article cites Greg Porteous, director of iShares' 401(k) business, and three 401(k) providers who have added iShares ETFs to their offerings: Ascensus, the Newport Group and Plan Administrators, Inc..

The article also returns to some common themes in the struggle to push ETFs into 401(k)s.

"Exchange-traded funds have struggled in the 401(k) market because retirement plans neutralize some of their key advantages," Salisbury writes, noting that 401(k)s already offer tax efficiency (one of the benefits of ETFs), don't offer intra-day trading (making ETFs function kind of like mutual funds) and the existence of non-ETF index mutual funds (already in use inside some 401(k) plans). Vanguard even told the WSJ that it hasn't added ETFs to its 401(k) offering since it already offers index mutual funds.

Salisbury wonders if the lack of revenue sharing in ETFs will help boost their popularity with 401(k) advisors, though given that revenue sharing is used to pay administrative and advisor costs, DC industry insiders see that as more of a barrier to advisor adoption. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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

0.0
 Do You Recommend This Story?



GO TO: MFWire
Return to Top
 News Archives
2024: Q2Q1
2023: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2022: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2021: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2020: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2019: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2018: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2017: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2016: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2015: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2014: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2013: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2012: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2011: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2010: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2009: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2008: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2007: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2006: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2005: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2004: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2003: Q4Q3Q2Q1
2002: Q4Q3Q2Q1
 Subscribe via RSS:
Raw XML
Add to My Yahoo!
follow us in feedly




©All rights reserved to InvestmentWires, Inc. 1997-2024
14 Wall Street | 20th Floor | New York, NY 10005 | P: 212-331-8968 | F: 212-331-8998
Privacy Policy :: Terms of Use