Bruce Kelly talks to Nicole Casperson about the proliferation of free robo-platforms across large financial institutions and how they are using these digital tools to cross-sell to their smaller investors. Jeff Benjamin then interviews Todd Rosenbluth, who outlines the odd evolution of semitransparent ETFs. The market demand doesn't seem high, yet more and more of them are being launched. Jeff and Todd dive into the “why.”

Episode Notes

The InvestmentNews Podcast will have a special episode dropping Tuesday, Nov. 10, to discuss how Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' election will affect the financial services business

2:15-13:30 — Nicole Casperson on big banks getting into the robo-advice game

— The play for the younger investor (3:00)

— Targeting lower-asset customers (5:00)

— How this plays pit for Bank of America/Merrill Lynch (7:30)

— The melding of investing and banking services, and Betterment/Wealthfront's response (9:30)

— The importance of brand and the freemium model (12:30)

13:45-38:45 — CFRA's Todd Rosenbluth on semitransparent ETFs

— What role do semitransparent ETFs play? (15:00)

— Are flows actually going into these funds? (19:30)

— The challenges of launching amid a pandemic (23:00)

— The outlook for semitransparent ETFs and active mutual funds (27:30)

— Surprises from the roll-out of semitransparent ETFs (31:15)

— Is there a real market for semitransparent ETFs? (35:30)

Guest Bio

Todd Rosenbluth is head of ETF and mutual fund research at CFRA, an independent research company. He provides fund insights to the wealth management market through ratings and thematic commentary. He is based in New York.