Russell to Close 25 ETFs

Russell Investments is planning to close its family of 25 passively managed ETFs. The firm will continue to operate the Russell Equity ETF, which is an actively managed, asset allocated portfolio.

“While the innovation behind Russell’s next-generation ETF products received substantial interest in general, the market for them is still in its early days,” according to a press release. “Given challenging equity market conditions since the launch of these products, Russell determined that proposing the liquidation of the passively-managed ETFs at this time is in the best interests of the ETFs and their shareholders.”

The funds had approximately $310 million in assets as of July 31, 2012.

The funds that are being shuttered include 10 "factor" ETFs that were launched a little over a year ago. The ETFs were designed to deliver focused large cap and small cap exposure to five significant risk factors - high beta, low beta, high volatility, low volatility and high momentum - while also managing portfolio exposure and control exposure to other non-targeted risk factors.

Russell will also be closing its 10 "investment discipline" ETFs and its two "high dividend yield" ETFs.

The affected funds will be closed to new investment on Oct. 9, 2012. The funds will be delisted from NYSE Arca or the NASDAQ Stock Market at the close of trading on Oct. 16, 2012. On the same date, the funds will commence the process of liquidating their assets.