WAYNE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hartford Funds announced today the listing of its first actively managed, semi-transparent exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), which will be sub-advised by Wellington Management Company LLP. Hartford Large Cap Growth ETF (CBOE: HFGO) seeks capital appreciation and is designed to deliver consistent, high active share, large-cap growth exposure that seeks to identify growth companies ahead of the market consensus.
This ETF is different from traditional ETFs. Traditional ETFs tell the public what assets they hold each day. This ETF will not. This may create additional risks for your investment. For example: You may have to pay more money to trade the ETF’s shares. This ETF will provide less information to traders, who tend to charge more for trades when they have less information. The price you pay to buy ETF shares on an exchange may not match the value of the ETF’s portfolio. The same is true when you sell shares. These price differences may be greater for this ETF compared to other ETFs because it provides less information to traders. These additional risks may be even greater in bad or uncertain market conditions. The ETF will publish on its website each day a “Tracking Basket” designed to help trading in shares of the ETF. While the Tracking Basket includes some of the ETF’s holdings, it is not the ETF’s actual portfolio. The differences between this ETF and other ETFs may also have advantages. By keeping certain information about the ETF secret, this ETF may face less risk that other traders can predict or copy its investment strategy. This may improve the ETF’s performance. If other traders are able to copy or predict the ETF’s investment strategy, however, this may hurt the ETF’s performance. For additional information regarding the unique attributes and risks of the ETF, see the later discussion on the Tracking Basket and the risks of the ETF below.
HFGO will use the active equity ETF model created by Fidelity Investments, which employs an innovative “tracking basket” methodology. The methodology is designed to maintain the expected benefits of the ETF structure, provide appropriate information to market makers and authorized participants to promote efficient trading of shares while shielding the Fund’s portfolio, and allow the Fund portfolio managers to add value through active management while protecting the Fund’s portfolio from disclosure.
“We believe that this new fund, which offers active equity management in an ETF wrapper, has the potential to be an attractive option for both financial professionals and investors,” said Vernon Meyer, Chief Investment Officer at Hartford Funds. “We are not only pleased to further strengthen our sub-advisory relationship with Wellington, but also our partnership with Fidelity, whose active equity ETF model has allowed us to expand our offerings.”
Using a bottom-up stock selection process, HFGO seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing in a diversified portfolio of common stocks covering a broad range of industries, companies, and market capitalizations that Wellington believes exhibit long-term growth potential. The Fund defines large-cap securities as companies with market caps within the collective range of the Russell 1000 Index and S&P 500 Index, which was between $529.7 million and $2.34 trillion, as of September 30, 2021.
HFGO provides access to an experienced large-cap growth portfolio management team, which consists of Senior Managing Directors and Partners, Stephen Mortimer and Mario Abularach. Mortimer and Abularach also serve as the portfolio managers of The Hartford Growth Opportunities Fund, a mutual fund that uses a similar strategy.
HFGO is listed on Cboe BZX Exchange, Inc. and will use the Russell 1000 Growth Index as its performance benchmark.
For more information on Hartford Funds’ ETF product offerings, please visit www.hartfordfunds.com.
About Hartford Funds
Founded in 1996, Hartford Funds is a leading asset manager, which provides mutual funds, ETFs, and 529 college savings plans. Using its human-centric investing approach, Hartford Funds creates strategies and tools designed to address the needs and wants of investors. Leveraging partnerships with leading experts, Hartford Funds delivers insight into the latest demographic trends and investor behavior.
The firm’s product line-up includes more than 50 mutual funds and ETFs in a variety of styles and asset classes. Its mutual funds (with the exception of certain fund of funds) are sub-advised by Wellington Management or Schroder Investment Management North America Inc. The strategic beta ETFs offered by Hartford Funds are designed to help address investors’ evolving needs by leveraging a unique risk-optimized approach, which identifies risks within each asset class and then deliberately and systematically re-allocates capital toward risks more likely to enhance return potential. Excluding affiliated funds of funds, as of September 30, 2021, Hartford Funds’ investment advisory business had approximately $152.1 billion in discretionary and non-discretionary assets under management. For more information about our investment family, visit http://www.hartfordfunds.com.
About Wellington Management
Tracing its history to 1928, Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest independent investment management firms, serving as a trusted adviser to over 3,200 clients in more than 60 countries. The firm manages more than US$1 trillion for pensions, endowments and foundations, insurers, family offices, fund sponsors, global wealth managers, and other clients. As a private partnership whose only business is investment management, the firm is able to align its long-term views and interests with those of its clients. The firm offers comprehensive investment management capabilities that span nearly all segments of the global capital markets, including equity, fixed income, multi-asset, and alternative strategies. With more than 800 investment professionals located in offices around the world, Wellington pairs deep multi-disciplinary research resources with independent investment teams operating in an entrepreneurial “boutique” environment. For more information, please visit wellington.com.
HIG-W
Some of the statements in this release may be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution investors that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially. Investors should consider the important risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ. These important risks and uncertainties include those discussed in The Hartford’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our 2020 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the other filings The Hartford makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update this release, which speaks as of the date issued.
From time to time, The Hartford may use its website to disseminate material company information. Financial and other important information regarding The Hartford is routinely accessible through and posted on our website at http://ir.thehartford.com. In addition, you may automatically receive email alerts and other information about The Hartford when you enroll your email address by visiting the "Email Alerts" section at http://ir.thehartford.com.
Important Risks: The Fund is new and has a limited operating history. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Security prices fluctuate in value depending on general market and economic conditions and the prospects of individual companies. The net asset value (NAV) of the Fund's shares may fluctuate due to changes in the market value of the Fund's holdings. The Fund's share price may fluctuate due to changes in the relative supply of and demand for the shares on an exchange. • Different investment styles may go in and out of favor, which may cause the Fund to underperform the broader stock market. • To the extent the Fund focuses on one or more sectors, the Fund may be subject to increased volatility and risk of loss if adverse developments occur. • The Fund may have high portfolio turnover, which could increase its transaction costs and an investor's tax liability. • In certain instances, unlike other ETFs, the Fund may effect creations and redemptions partly or wholly for cash, rather than in-kind, which may make the Fund less tax-efficient and incur more fees than an ETF that primarily or wholly effects creations and redemptions in-kind. • Foreign investments may be more volatile and less liquid than U.S. investments and are subject to the risk of currency fluctuations and adverse political, economic and regulatory developments. • The Fund may have a limited number of financial institutions that act as authorized participants, none of which are obligated to engage in creation and/or redemption transactions.
The objective of the actively managed ETF Tracking Basket is to construct a portfolio of stocks and representative index ETFs that tracks the daily performance of an actively managed ETF without exposing current holdings, trading activities, or internal equity research. The Tracking Basket is designed to conceal any nonpublic information about the underlying portfolio and only uses the Fund's latest publicly disclosed holdings, representative ETFs, and the publicly known daily performance in its construction. You can gain access to the Tracking Basket and the Tracking Basket Weight overlap on hartfordfunds.com.
Although the Tracking Basket is intended to provide investors with enough information to allow for an effective arbitrage mechanism that will keep the market price of the Fund at or close to the underlying NAV per share of the Fund, there is a risk (which may increase during periods of market disruption or volatility) that market prices will vary significantly from the underlying NAV of the Fund; ETFs trading on the basis of a published Tracking Basket may trade at a wider bid/ask spread than ETFs that publish their portfolios on a daily basis, especially during periods of market disruption or volatility, and, therefore, may cost investors more to trade, and although the Fund seeks to benefit from keeping its portfolio information secret, market participants may attempt to use the Tracking Basket to identify a Fund's trading strategy, which, if successful, could result in such market participants engaging in certain predatory trading practices that may have the potential to harm the Fund and its shareholders.
Because shares are traded in the secondary market, a broker may charge a commission to execute a transaction in shares, and an investor may incur the cost of the spread between the price at which a dealer will buy shares and the price at which a dealer will sell shares.
Investors should carefully consider a fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the fund’s prospectus and summary prospectus, which can be obtained by visiting hartfordfunds.com. Please read it carefully before investing.
No products or investment vehicles offered by HARTFORD FUNDS are sponsored, endorsed, sold, or promoted by FIDELITY or any of its affiliates.
Mutual funds are distributed by Hartford Funds Distributors, LLC (HFD), Member FINRA. Exchange-traded products are distributed by ALPS Distributors, Inc. (ALPS). Advisory services may be provided by Hartford Funds Management Company, LLC (HFMC) or its wholly owned subsidiary, Lattice Strategies LLC (Lattice). Certain funds are sub-advised by Wellington Management Company LLP and/or Schroder Investment Management North America Inc. Schroder Investment Management North America Ltd. serves as a secondary sub-adviser to certain funds. Hartford Funds refers to HFD, HFMC, and Lattice, which are not affiliated with any sub-adviser or ALPS.
226038
HFA001303
