Financial services education provider Kaplan Professional and global investment manager BlackRock have launched an exchange-traded fund (ETF) short course for financial advisers to provide information about the growth of these products and their use in client portfolios.
The course consists of six modules, which each take one hour to complete and provide an overview of the ETF market and introduction to the funds, the liquidity and trading associated with them, their role as an investment vehicle, choosing an ETF product and their use in portfolio construction.
Access to the online course will be via Kaplan Professional’s education platform, OnTrack, and on finishing the course, which includes a quiz at the end of each module, advisers will receive a certificate of completion and will also be eligible to receive iShares ETF certification from BlackRock.
Kaplan Professional chief executive Brian Knight said the course was part of the education provider’s efforts to provide advisers with further opportunities to extend their competence, knowledge and skills in emerging, niche and specialist areas.
“Advisers are increasingly using ETFs in client portfolios as a way to add further diversification; the short course will help them to effectively incorporate ETFs in the portfolio construction process,” Knight said.
“Throughout the short course, advisers will explore new ways of investing, including fixed income ETFs, factor investing and thematic ETFs. They will also learn how to compare and contrast the different types of ETFs available and analyse the key considerations to evaluate which one to invest in.”
BlackRock Australasia head of wealth Chantal Giles said the course was part of the investment manager’s work to educate advisers about the role of exchange-traded products (ETP) within the context of a whole portfolio.
“The exponential growth in the Australian ETP landscape has democratised access to a broad range of investment strategies, asset classes, thematics and geographies,” Giles said.
“At the same time, the proliferation of products has also meant investors are increasingly looking to their advisers for guidance and information to discern what ETP best fits their risk/return preferences.
“BlackRock believes it is even more important for advisers to learn to look at other product considerations, including product structure, benchmark, as well as total cost of ownership.”
