Mutual fund families of Vanguard and T. Rowe Price are used where appropriate. The investment strategy will follow our Domestic and International Focus approach.
Exchange traded funds, also known as ETFs, are the most common investment vehicle we use in lieu of mutual funds. This is because ETFs provide liquidity throughout the day as they are traded like stocks on US exchanges and typically have significantly lower internal fees than the average open-ended mutual fund.
ETFs are transparent. You will always be able to see what you own and not have overlapping exposure unless you choose to overlap. Mutual fund managers are only required to disclose their holdings two times per year.
ETFs allow you to manage your taxes. You control the capital gain or capital loss based on the trades executed in your portfolio. Mutual funds disclose the tax implications of actions taken within the fund at year end. You may not have made a single trade in your mutual fund position, but still have to pay tax on capital gains incurred from the fund itself. We find this to be a nice advantage to ETFs.
