The latest news in investment offerings, financial products and other services relevant to wealth advisors and their clients.

L&G
In line with a number of investment managers, such as WisdomTree, Legal & General (L&G) has launched another exchange-traded fund (ETF) – the L&G WTW Global Equity Diversified UCITS ETF (GEDI). The fund, which provides access to institutional-level investment strategies, is the latest ETF launch for L&G, following a year in which its total ETF assets under management rose by about 50 per cent.

GEDI aims to provide exposure to the WTW Global Equity Diversified Index – a custom index built by MSCI on criteria provided by WTW – following a multi-factor index strategy which uses diversified signals across value, quality, and momentum, the firm said in a statement. The strategy is designed to serve as a core equity building block, with risk managed through explicit portfolio constraints which include stock, sector and country exposure. It will be rebalanced quarterly, with ESG integration, including climate transition objectives, also featured within the strategy.

“Providing access to highly sophisticated and cost-effective investment strategies is an important part of L&G’s global asset management offering, having been an early pioneer of index investing,” David Barron, global head of Index & ETFs, at L&G Asset Management, said. “The ETF wrapper, which provides easy access, transparency and liquidity, will aim to enable a broader group of investors with the opportunity to invest in this strategy.”

Vanguard
US-based investment manager Vanguard has launched another four new exchange-traded funds – the Vanguard Russell 1000 US Growth UCITS ETF, the Vanguard Russell 1000 US Value UCITS ETF, the Vanguard Russell US Mid-Cap UCITS ETF, and the Vanguard Russell 2000 US Small-Cap UCITS ETF. These new ETFs aim to provide investors with additional building blocks to diversify and tailor their exposure to US equities across styles and market capitalisations. They will be listed on the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Börse, Euronext Amsterdam, Borsa Italiana and SIX Swiss Exchange.

All four ETFs will be managed by Vanguard’s global equity group, which manages more than $8.39 trillion in assets worldwide with over 50 million clients globally, drawing on diverse perspectives and knowledge to deliver accurate benchmark tracking, prudent risk management and highly competitive investment performance.

“The US equity market offers investors a wide range of opportunities. With these new ETFs, we are expanding our range of low-cost building blocks to help investors tailor their US equity exposure more precisely,” Claire Aley, head of product and PRD Europe, said. “For investors looking to lean into areas of the market with greater exposure to technology and AI-related businesses, growth can play an important role. Equally, value can help investors diversify away from the parts of the market that have dominated recent performance. The addition of mid- and small-cap exposures also gives investors further tools to diversify.”