The team at a Midwestern fund firm are preparing to liquidate a $48-million-AUM trio.

Yesterday, the folks at First Trust Advisors L.P. [profile] publicly revealed plans to shut down three funds. The Developed International Equity Select ETF (RNDM on the Nasdaq) is scheduled to liquidate on June 28, after delisting on June 20. And the EquityCompass Risk Manager ETF (ERM on the NYSE Arca) and the First Trust BICK Index Fund (BICK on the Nasdaq) are scheduled to liquidate on July 21, after delisting on July 14.

First Trust Advisors serves as investment advisor to all three liquidating funds, First Trust Portfolios L.P. serves as distributor, Chapman and Cutler LLP serves as counsel, and Deloitte & Touche LLP serves as independent accounting firm. The investment committees (i.e. PM teams) for all three funds include: Jon Erickson (senior vice president at First Trust), David McGarel (chief investment officer, chief operating officer, and managing director), Chris Peterson (SVP), and Roger Testin (SVP).

The inception date of BICK, the oldest of the liquidating trio, was April 12, 2010, and as of yesterday the fund had $12.055 million in AUM. BICK is a series of First Trust Exchanged-Traded Fund II and comes with an expense ratio of 64 basis points.

A passively managed fund, BICK is designed to track the ISE Bick Index. Nasdaq, Inc. serves as index provider, and the fund's investment committee includes Erik Russo (vice president at First Trust) and Stan Ueland (SVP). Bank of New York Mellon Corp serves as the fund's investor servicing agent. BNY Mellon serves as the fund's administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, fund accounting agent, and transfer agent.

RNDM, too, is an index fund. Its inception date was June 20, 2017, and as of yesterday the fund had $19.876 million in AUM. RNDM is a series of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI and comes with an expense ratio of 65 bps.

Riskalyze, Inc. serves as index provider to RNDM, which is designed to track the Nasdaq Riskalyze Developed Markets Index. The fund's investment committee includes Todd Larson, a vice president at First Trust. Brown Brothers Harriman serves as the fund's investor servicing agent. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. serves as administrator, accounting agent, custodian, and transfer agent.

ERM is the sol actively managed fund among the liquidating trio. Its inception date was April 10, 2017, and as of yesterday it had $16.336 million in AUM. ERM is a series of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VIII and comes with an expense ratio of 66 bps.

EquityCompass Investment Management, LLC serves as ERM's subadvisor. The fund's PM team includes First Trust's Larson, plus two EquityCompass folks: Timothy McCann, portfolio manager; and Christopher Mutascio, senior managing director and PM. BNY Mellon Investment Servicing (US) Inc. servies as ERM's investor servicing agent. BNY Mellon serves as administrator, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, fund accounting agent, and transfer agent. 

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