State Street Now Distributor for Select Sector SPDR ETFs

State Street Investment Management (SSIM) has been the investment advisor for the Select Sector SPDR ETFs since 1998. It will now take over the distribution and marketing for these funds. The move brings 11 ETFs in-house under the SSIM umbrella to unify its product offerings and enhance the investor experience.

Many of those funds have been household names in the ETF industry for many years. These include the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU). These funds have been rebranded under SSIM. Therefore, the aforementioned funds are now the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) and the State Street Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU).

“State Street Investment Management has been a leader in sector and industry-focused ETF insights for years,” said TMX VettaFi’s Head of Research Todd Rosenbluth. He recently discussed XLU during a recent “ETF of the Week” episode. “Many advisors and investors are using ETFs like XLK and XLU to tactically overweight sectors in a portfolio using SPLG or SPY as the core.”

As Rosenbluth mentioned, sector ETFs can provide ideal complementary solutions for investors looking to tilt their equities exposure to a specific industry within the S&P 500. Those wanting to capture the upside in tech can lean into XLK. For a defensive play in the utilities sector, they can use XLU. However investors want to slice and dice their S&P 500 industry exposure, there’s a State Street ETF that can do just that.

Innovating for Nearly 30 Years

The advent of the ETF has allowed investors to get this industry-specific exposure to achieve custom-tailored portfolios. As noted, SSIM has been in the forefront of these sector ETFs for almost 30 years. It has over $332 billion in net AUM for the entire suite as of the end of September.

“Over nearly three decades, the Select Sector SPDRs have become an industry standard-bearer for sector investing and a key pillar in our ETF offering,” said Anna Paglia, chief business officer for State Street Investment Management. “By consolidating advisory and distribution responsibilities, including research functions, investment content and specialist support for these funds under one roof, we’re able to deliver an enhanced investor engagement [experience. This deepens] our research and tools to help investors more rigorously analyze the sector landscape and build robust and resilient portfolios.”

In addition to XLK and XLU, the other funds coming under the SSIM umbrella are as follows:

For more news, information, and analysis, visit VettaFi | ETF Trends.

Originally published on ETF Trends


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