Hartford and HCM listed equity ETFs that cost more than funds already doing similar work

Two equity ETFs listed in late October, and both charge more than a fund already doing similar work.

Hartford Funds converted a mutual fund into Hartford Alpha Capture International Equity ETF, ACIN. It charges 0.52% and seeks to outperform a developed-markets index. J.P. Morgan's JPMorgan International Research Enhanced Equity ETF, JIRE, seeks the same index and charges 0.24%.

Howard Capital Management's HCM Select 50 ETF, FIFT, is a new actively managed fund. It charges 1.35% for a 10-sector dividend screen. ALPS Funds' ALPS Sector Dividend Dogs ETF, SDOG, runs a similar screen at 0.36%, and the extra fee buys a signal that can take the portfolio to cash.

Hartford Alpha Capture International Equity ETF

ACIN listed on Cboe BZX on Oct. 26, after Hartford International Equity Fund converted at the close on Oct. 23. Hartford's fund page showed $621 million in net assets as of Nov. 3.

Hartford says the fund still seeks long-term capital appreciation. The benchmark is now the MSCI EAFE Index, which Hartford describes as large- and mid-cap securities in developed markets, excluding the United States and Canada. The conversion filing says the ETF will not invest in emerging markets as a principal strategy.

Hartford's fund page lists total operating expenses of 0.52%. The conversion filing says Hartford Funds Management has agreed to limit expenses to that rate through Feb. 29, 2028, and that the ETF should cost less than any share class of the mutual fund. The cheapest classes in that fee table were 0.55%.

J.P. Morgan says JIRE seeks to outperform the same index with fundamental research, while keeping similar sector and geographic risk. As of Sept. 30 it charged 0.24% after a waiver that runs through Feb. 28, 2027, on a gross fee of 0.29%, and held $10.91 billion.

The conversion made ACIN a little cheaper than the mutual fund it replaced. At 0.52%, it still costs more than twice that net charge.

HCM Select 50 ETF

FIFT is a new fund. Howard Capital Management's page gives an inception date of Oct. 21 and names the Texas Stock Exchange as the primary exchange.

The Oct. 9 prospectus says the fund has no history of operations, sets annual operating expenses at 1.35% with no waiver, and that Howard Capital Management actively manages the portfolio.

The prospectus says the adviser takes about five companies from each of 10 sectors each quarter and equal-weights them within each sector. Real estate is not among those sectors.

SDOG's prospectus says the fund tracks an index that equal-weights the five highest-yielding stocks in each of 10 sectors, real estate excluded. It charged 0.36% as of Sept. 30.

FIFT's prospectus says a separate signal, HCM-BuyLine, sets how much of the fund is in stocks, and that the fund may be up to 100% in stocks or up to 100% in cash and cash equivalents, depending on the strength of the trend that signal identifies.

SDOG has no such rule. That signal is what the 1.35% buys.