Factor investing goes hand-in-hand with active management, said Kamal Bhatia, president and CEO at Principal Funds, at the 2020 Inside ETFs conference.
Bhatia said that factor investing has really exploded, and he expects it to continue to do so, but at Principal, they are moving beyond single-factor ETFs and into multi-factor funds.
Specifically, he said Principal develops ETFs to help advisors manage retirement income.
"We are one of the top managers of retirement across the globe, particularly with a long heritage of managing retirement income, which is probably one of the biggest unmet needs in marketplace," Bhatia said. "Most of the products we are designing and working with financial advisors on is to help them think through adding these products in a retirement income context. So we think about yield-oriented products and equity-oriented products that help them in that regard."