Investment Product and Service Launches

Hartford Funds launches new ETF

Hartford Funds has launched a new exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Hartford Longevity Economy ETF (NYSE Arca: HLGE).

The fund seeks to provide investment results that, before fees and expenses, correspond to the total return performance of the Hartford Longevity Economy Index (LHLGEX).

LHLGEX is designed to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns by investing in companies that comprise industries that reflect certain themes that are expected to benefit from the growth of the aging population and the substantial buying power it represents. 

HLGE is designed to invest in companies included within industries that provide goods and services that reflect longevity economy themes, including aging in place and home modification, working longer, performance health and comfort, maintaining social connections, financial freedom, staying mobile, human enhancement and leisure, and entertainment. 

HLGE is designed to address risks and opportunities within the U.S. longevity economy universe by selecting equity securities of companies exhibiting a favorable combination of priority multifactor characteristics, including valuation, momentum, and quality. LHLGEX seeks to outperform a capitalization-weighted universe of U.S. capitalization equity securities over a complete market cycle.

“Education about the importance of longevity planning has long been a hallmark of the insight Hartford Funds shares with financial professionals, and this product is an extension of that strategy,” says Vernon Meyer, chief investment officer (CIO) at Hartford Funds. “By leveraging our world-class multifactor indexing approach and risk management, the Hartford Longevity Economy ETF seeks to deliver a unique and diversifying shareholder experience by tapping into the underappreciated and persistent value of evolving consumer patterns among the widening senior demographic.

HLGE is listed on the New York Stock Exchange Arca Inc. and its estimated current expense ratio is 0.44%

T. Rowe Price Creates Impact Equity Fund

T. Rowe Price has launched its first product giving investors the opportunity to simultaneously pursue their financial goals and to have a positive impact on the global environment and social equity issues. 

The T. Rowe Price Global Impact Equity Fund will employ an active management approach to seek companies that the company says are on the right side of these changes. It will initially be offered to U.S. investors, but the firm intends eventually to introduce the strategy to clients around the world.

The fund will seek out companies that can potentially provide excess returns over its benchmark, the MSCI All-Country World index. It will focus on three pillars: climate and resource impact, social equity and quality of life, and sustainable innovation and productivity. It will exclude certain industries and companies that the manager believes do not conform to the fund’s impact mandate, such as fossil fuels, tobacco, gaming and for-profit prison companies.

The fund will be aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), a globally recognized framework designed to end poverty, ensure prosperity and protect the planet.

The fund will be managed by Hari Balkrishna. Balkrishna has 15 years of investment industry experience, including spending the past decade at T. Rowe Price. From 2015 until the end of last year, he was associate portfolio manager of the firm’s global growth equity strategy. Having lived and worked on five continents, Balkrishna has a keen understanding of the many different social systems around the world and he is personally passionate about addressing climate change.

The fund will employ an all-capitalization, high-conviction approach, typically owning between 55 and 85 securities, focused on those that Balkrishna believes will create positive environmental and social impact, along with attractive returns, over a long-term time horizon.

As with other T. Rowe Price strategies, the fund will draw upon the firm’s global equity research platform, comprising 203 equity research analysts, 10 sector portfolio managers and 73 regional and diversified portfolio managers. In addition, the fund will tap the expertise of the firm’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) experts and responsible investing research analysts, as well as its proprietary Responsible Investing Indicator Model (RIIM), a database detailing how more than 15,000 securities measure up against established environmental and social parameters.

The net expense ratio for the Investor Class shares (Ticker: TGPEX) is 0.94% and the minimum initial investment is $2,500. The net expense ratio for the I Class shares (Ticker: TGBLX) is 0.79% and the minimum initial investment is $1 million.