Issue link: https://resources.envestnet.com/i/1527492
FOR ONE-ON-ONE USE WITH A CLIENT'S FINANCIAL ADVISOR ONLY Envestnet | PMC Investment Methodology Guide | 13 Traditional Passive ETF/Index Funds The traditional passive ETF/mutual fund (referenced as "fund" in this section) ranking methodology consists of two steps: first, quantitative screening; and second, scoring and ranking. PMC screens all available US-based funds in the Morningstar Direct database based on five criteria, and funds must pass all five to be eligible for ranking. • Legal structure • Active vs. passive management (as defined by Morningstar) • Available data history • Envestnet platform style • Total sponsor assets under management (AUM) Once the screening process is completed, PMC calculates a weighted-average score of three performance dimensions—tracking, liquidity, and cost—and then ranks the funds within their respective peer groups. As the fund's main purpose is to provide exposure to a particular index (as opposed to delivering alpha,) the most important feature is how well the fund tracks a particular index. Consequently, PMC emphasizes the tracking score in constructing the overall score, assigning a 50 percent weight to the tracking quality and 25 percent each to both liquidity and cost. The Approved List consists of all portfolios (mutual funds and ETFs are evaluated separately) whose scores place them in the top 30 percent within their peer group. In addition, PMC also approves those funds with AUM greater than the maximum of the AUM for quantitatively approved funds within the same peer group. This allows those funds to be considered that are popular in the marketplace, but that might not track a benchmark identical to that of a particular investment style. In certain categories (e.g., Bank Loan, Commodities Broad Basket), the number of funds that meet the five criteria is too small to be ranked effectively via a quantitative process. These categories are ranked manually. All traditional passive ETFs and mutual funds that are deemed "Approved" based on this methodology will receive the designation "Approved- Quantitative" on the Envestnet platform. Please note: although mutual funds and SMAs are reviewed on a quarterly basis, any traditional passive ETFs, mutual funds, or SMAs that are index-based are only to be reviewed annually. Factor-Based ETFs PMC's Factor-Based ETF ranking methodology is similar to that of our passive ETFs and funds. In particular, it identifies products that have good characteristics in three areas: cost, liquidity, and performance versus their peer group. The main difference between the regular ETF and factor-based ETF ranking is in how we evaluate the performance. For regular ETFs, we look for products with the smallest TE; however, for factor-based ETFs, we add two more performance dimensions to the TE criterion: the risk-adjusted return and the exposure to the desired risk factor. As with our evaluation of traditional ETFs, the process for factor-based ETFs consists of two steps: first, quantitative screening, and second, scoring and ranking. The quantitative screening process for factor-based ETFs comprises eight screens, all of which an ETF must satisfy to be scored and ranked. • Legal structure • Active vs. passive management • Available data history • Envestnet platform style • Total sponsor assets under management (AUM) • Product AUM • Morningstar Strategic Beta flag • Number of rankable products in the peer group Step two in the process is to score and rank the universe that we screened in the previous step. We rank only ETF products whose Morningstar SB Attribute is Dividend Screened/ Weighted, Fundamental Weighted, Momentum, Quality, Low/Minimum Volatility/Variance, or Low/High Beta. These are by far the most popular SB attributes and cover more than 90 percent of all the products in Morningstar's SB universe. PMC Mutual Fund and SMA Quantitative Ranking Methodology 2017 PMC ETF and Index Mutual Fund/SMA Quantitative Ranking Methodology 2017 Strategic Beta ETF Ranking Methodology PMC Mutual Fund and SMA Quantitative Ranking Methodology Download the document PMC ETF and Index Mutual Fund/SMA Quantitative Ranking Methodology Download the document PMC Strategic Beta ETF Ranking Methodology Download the document

