The team at a $66.7-billion-AUM (As of August 31), 67-year-old fund firm recently added a fifth fund to a 10-year-old, $5.987-billion-AUM product suite.

Peter Liao VanEck Portfolio Manager, Head of Equity ETFs

Last Thursday, Brandon Rakszawski, director of product management at VanEck [profile], and Amelia Furr, global head of sales for indexes at Morningstar, unveiled the launch of the VanEck Morningstar SMID Moat ETF (SMOT on the Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc.). The new fund's inception was last Tuesday, and as of yesterday it had $8.7 million in AUM. It comes with an expense ratio of 49 basis points (including an 8-bps fee waiver promised through February 1, 2024).

SMOT is a series of the VanEck ETF Trust. Van Eck Associates Corporation serves as the new fund's administrator and administrator, Van Eck Securities Corporation as the fund's distributor, and Morningstar, Inc. as the fund's index provider. The fund is designed to track the Morningstar U.S. Small-Mid Cap Moat Focus Index (MSUMMFGU), and VanEck's Peter Liao serves as PM.

Rakszawski describes SMOT as "an exciting natural progression" as the VanEck team builds out their "moat-focused family." The new fund is designed to track an index full of U.S. small and mid-cap companies that the M* team sees as having long-term competitive advantages (i.e. "moats").

"We're currently seeing SMID-cap valuations at a 20-year low, relative to their large-cap counterparts, offering investors a timely and attractive entry point," Rakszawski states.

"The Morningstar US Small-Mid Cap Moat Focus Index taps into the collective insights of the Morningstar Equity Reesearch team to provide exposure to small- and mid-cap companies with strong Morningstar Economic Moat Ratings that are trading at relatively low current market price to fair value estimates," Furr states.

The new fund's other service providers include: Dechert LLP as counsel; PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as independent accounting firm; and State Street Bank and Trust Company as custodian, securities lending agent, and transfer agent. 

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