Fund administrator and private label issuer The Nottingham Company has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to convert mutual funds managed by Adaptive Investments into exchange traded funds. In an announcement this week, Nottingham said it expects one of those Adaptive funds to be converted in January.
Nottingham has hired law firm Greenberg Traurig to help with the legal hurdles.
There’s a growing interest among asset managers to convert their existing open-end mutual funds into exchange traded funds, especially with the rise of nontransparent active structures. Attorneys in the space have been working over the last year to help managers do just that.
“Over the last two to three years, there has probably been more speculation and discussion regarding the conversion of open-end mutual funds to ETFs than any other subject in the ETF industry,” said Kip Meadows, founder and CEO of Nottingham, in a statement. “The non-transparent ETF developments are important as well and interrelated in many cases. With the combination of both options now available, we expect a large number of mutual funds to convert to ETFs in the coming years.”
The prize of converting is large for asset managers who have been playing defense, as more recent ETF entrants attract new money coming into the market; a conversion pathway would allow them to port over the fund’s assets, track record and performance.
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