Legg Mason's [profile] first exchange-traded fund is officially on its way. On Wednesday the Baltimore-based mutual fund firm filed to launch the Legg Mason Western Asset Ultra-Short Duration ETF, an active, short-duration fixed income fund, sometime next year [see filing].

Both ETF Trends and IndexUniverse reported on the filing. IndexUniverse noted that, thanks to a similar target duration, the new ETF "looks like a clone of Pimco's $1.58 billion fund, MINT [i.e. the Pimco Enhanced Short Maturity Strategy Fund]."

The filing does not list pricing for the proposed ETF, though the PIMCO offering costs 35 basis points. It will, not surprisingly, be sub-advised by Western Asset Management Company (i.e. Wamco), and PMed by Martin Hanley, Kevin Kennedy and Stephen Walsh. Legg will handle distribution.

Fundsters may not be surprised by the move, as Legg Mason has been publicly pondering an active ETF launch for at least two years, and then last year the firm filed with the SEC to get exemptive relief for offering active ETFs [see MFWire.com, 10/1/2009 and 2/23/2010]. And last year, future Ameriprise/Columbia subsidiary Grail Advisors filed to launch an active ETF sub-advised by Wamco [see MFWire.com, 5/17/2010]. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


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