A 23-year-old asset manager is launching its first ETF while also powering another shop's new ETF series.

Randall William "Randy" Swan Swan Global Investments Founder, CEO

Last week, Randy Swan, founder and lead PM of Swan Global Investments [profile], confirmed the launch of the Swan Hedged Equity Exchange-Traded Fund (HEGD). Durango, Colorado-based Swan has long offered mutual funds, and they've built their portfolios using ETFs and options as building blocks, but this is their first ETF launch. Like Swan's other offerings, the ETF is powered by Swan's proprietary Defined Risk Strategy.

Swan Capital Management is the new ETF's advisor, while Swan Global Management is its subadvisor. The ETF's PMs include: Christopher Hausman, Randy Swan, Robert Swan, and Micah Wakefield. Foreside Fund Services is the distributor. U.S. Bank is the administrator, custodian, and transfer agent. Morgen, Lewis & Bockius provides counsel, and Cohen & Company is the independent accounting firm. The fund's expense ratio is 79 basis points.

"The culmination of the current low-yield environment, an aging population and the significant shift toward options-based strategies has led us to create an easy-to-utilize ETF that will further democratize access to Swan's DRS and continue our mission of helping investors stay on track by remaining always invested and always hedged," Randy Swan states. "The typical 60-40 portfolio of stocks and bonds is ill-positioned going forward to repeat its returns of previous decades with bond yields near historic lows. Many investors be unwilling to settle for low yields or high levels of unprotected risk. Our new ETF is a potential solution for the new investing landscape."

Meanwhile, also last week, Sean O'Hara, president of Pacer ETFs Distributors, unveiled the launch of the Pacer Swan SOS ETF Series, advised by Malvern, Pennsylvania-based Pacer ETFs and subadvised by Swan. "SOS" stands for "Structured Outcome Strategies," and the series will initially include four funds: the Pacer Swan SOS Conservative (December) ETF (PSCX); the Pacer Swan SOS Moderate (December) ETF (PSMD); the Pacer Swan SOS Flex (December) ETF (PSFD); and the Pacer Swan SOS Fund of Funds ETF (PSFF).

The new Pacer Swan ETFs are PMed by Swan's Hausman and Wakefield. U.S. Bank is the funds' administrator, custodian, index receipt agent, and transfer agent. Pacer Financial is the distributor, Practus provides legal counsel, and Sanville & Company is the independent accounting firm. The expense ratio is 75 bps (expect the PSFF, which costs 18 bps).

Pacer's O'Hara describes the new ETFs as offering investors "potential for a higher degree of confidence," via an "easy-to-use wrapper." Swan's Wakefield, managing director of research and product development, describes working with Pacer as "an exciting partnership." And Joe Thomson, founder and president of Pacer Financial, puts the partnership in the context of "actively trying to anticipate the needs of each of our investors." 

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