It’s never been easier to start an exchange-traded fund — or so it seems.
Just ask the two wannabe asset managers who are planning new funds by themselves, away from the third-party ETF expert they previously relied upon to usher them through the arcane process. And they aren’t alone. With regulators set to remove red tape around getting funds to market, flying solo is now a viable possibility for even the smallest of issuers.
These “financial buccaneers” — as Vanguard’s legendary founder, Jack Bogle, recently labeled some ETF issuers — are the lifeblood of so-called white-label fund firms, which make their money guiding industry newbies into the $3.6 trillion exchange-traded marketplace.
