American Beacon's London Company ETF charges 0.67%, and the prospectus limits the tax pitch

American Beacon's launch announcement calls its new income ETF a tax-efficient way to own a long-running strategy. The prospectus limits that claim, and the annual fee is 0.67%.

The American Beacon The London Company Income Equity ETF, —TLIE, seeks current income first and a higher share price second. It started on Wednesday, September 23, and it trades on NYSE Arca. The London Company of Virginia picks the stocks for American Beacon Advisors, which runs the fund as an active portfolio rather than an index.

Greg Stumm, president and chief executive of American Beacon Partners, said ETFs "may be particularly attractive to tax-sensitive investors, and this ETF is built to play a key role in both income- and equity-focused portfolios."

The prospectus says that when large trading firms create or redeem shares, the fund expects to use cash for at least part of the trade, not only a basket of stocks. A basket can avoid a sale inside the fund, and cash can force one. The prospectus says the fund may therefore be less tax-efficient than an ETF that redeems in stock, because it may recognize a gain it could have avoided.

What a buyer would own

Most of what a buyer would own has paid a dividend in the past year. The prospectus sets that floor at 80% of net assets in normal times.

The fund will typically hold 30 to 40 companies, while the announcement described the strategy as 25 to 35 names.

A report dated Sunday, October 4 showed 34 holdings. Apple was the largest, at 6.2%, and the ten largest positions were 46.3% of assets.

Berkshire Hathaway, which has paid no cash dividend since 1967, was 4.3%. As much as 20% of the fund need not be a recent dividend payer, so the rule allows it.

The London Company has run this strategy since the end of 1999, in separate accounts and in a mutual fund. As of Monday, August 31, the strategy represented more than $19 billion. R5 shares of the mutual fund, ABCIX, showed a 1.10% SEC yield that day, a standard measure of recent income.

The ETF held $53.3 million at the Wednesday, September 30 net asset value. The issuer describes monthly distributions. The fund has not paid one, and the prospectus says an income goal does not guarantee a dividend.

What the fee buys

The prospectus lists a 0.67% fee, and it allows a distribution charge of up to 0.25% a year. That charge is not paid now. The R5 shares charge 0.78%, so the ETF costs 0.11 percentage points less than that class.

Schwab's U.S. Dividend Equity ETF, ASCHD, is the large dividend index fund in this field. It tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Dividend 100 Index and holds 102 stocks, so a fee gap against it is partly the price of active stock-picking.

The closer peer is the Bahl & Gaynor Income Growth ETF, ABGIG, an active fund with 48 holdings. —TLIE charges 0.22 percentage points more than ABGIG. Capital Group Dividend Value ETF, ACGDV, is another active fund, built to seek more dividend income than the average U.S. stock, plus growth.

Payout yields use the past year of distributions and the share price on Monday, October 5. The 1.10% on ABCIX is an SEC yield from Monday, August 31. The —TLIE assets are the Wednesday, September 30 value.

The new fund costs more than those active peers, for a strategy whose mutual fund recently yielded 1.10%.