MutualFundWire.com: Issakainen Unveils an ETF-of-Income-ETFs

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Tuesday, June 3, 2025

Issakainen Unveils an ETF-of-Income-ETFs

The team at a $255-billion-AUMS* fund firm near Chicago are rolling out an ETF-of-income-ETFs that invests in a variety of the firm's own index ETFs.

Last Thursday (May 29), Ryan Issakainen, senior vice president and ETF strategist at First Trust Advisors L.P. [profile], unveiled the launch of the First Trust Balanced Income ETF (FTBI on the NYSE Arca). Wheaton, Illinois-based First Trust serves as investment advisor and fund reporting agent for the new fund-of-funds.

FTBI's inception date was last Wednesday (May 28), and the new ETF comes with an expense ratio of 97 basis points. The fund now has more than $1 million in AUM.**

Bloomberg Index Services Limited (BISL) serves as FTBI's index provider. The new ETF is designed to track the Bloomberg Moderate Allocation Income Focus Index, which is comprised of various commodity-linked income ETFs, equity-linked income ETFs, and fixed income ETFs from First Trust. The First Trust team describes the new ETF as providing "one-ticker access to a selection of First Trust's income-generating ETFs and their experienced portfolio management teams in a fixed allocation across multiple asset classes."

FTBI's PM team is an investment committee. That committee includes:

Jon Erickson, senior vice president;

Daniel Lindquist, committee chairman and managing director;

David McGarel, chief investment officer, chief operating officer, and managing director;

Chris Peterson, SVP;

Erik Russo, SVP;

Roger Testin, SVP; and

Stan Ueland, SVP.

Isskainen puts the launch of FTBI in the context of the rising popularity of "ETFs that generate income by selling call options."

"FTBI, structured as a fund-of-funds, invests in a diverse range of income-generating ETFs across multiple asset classes, including those that employ option-selling strategies," Issakainen states.

FTBI is a non-diversified, passively managed series of First Trust Exchange-Traded Fund VI. The new ETF's other service providers include:

the Bank of New York Mellon as administrator, accounting agent, custodian, dividend disbursing agent, and transfer agent;

Chapman and Cutler LLP as counsel;

Deloitte & Touche LLP as independent accounting firm; and

First Trust Portfolios L.P. as distributor.