- What does ESN invest in?
- The ESN fund is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) designed to track the performance of a specific index comprising leading U.S. blue-chip corporations. While it primarily holds all 40 securities that constitute this underlying index, the fund maintains the flexibility to modify its holdings under certain predefined circumstances. A dedicated committee is responsible for selecting the companies included in the index. This selection process employs a qualitative methodology, focusing on identifying businesses of significant economic importance and stability across various critical sectors, such as technology, consumer goods, energy, and healthcare. The committee's goal is to ensure diverse representation by choosing firms considered vital to the nation's economy. During its annual rebalancing, ESN assigns an equal weighting to each constituent firm, ensuring uniform exposure across all components. However, the fund retains the ability to adjust these weightings throughout the year, allowing for strategic over- or underweighting of positions to optimize its alignment with the index's composition. Furthermore, ESN has the discretion to allocate up to 20 percent of its total assets to strategies involving S&P 500 futures and options. Notably, ESN recently transitioned from a mutual fund structure to an ETF, launching with $70 million in assets under management.
- What is the expense ratio of ESN?
- Essential 40 Stock ETF (ESN) charges an expense ratio of 0.95%. This is the annual fee deducted from fund assets to cover management and operations.
- How big is ESN?
- Essential 40 Stock ETF (ESN) manages $364.3M in total assets. AUM determines bid-ask liquidity and the fund's vulnerability to closure. Funds below ~$50M are at higher risk of liquidation.
- Is ESN actively managed or an index fund?
- ESN is actively managed: the manager selects holdings rather than tracking an index. Active funds typically charge higher expense ratios than index funds (ESN's is 0.95%) in exchange for the discretion to over- or under-weight positions.
- When was ESN launched?
- Essential 40 Stock ETF (ESN) launched in June 2014 and is managed by KKM Financial.
- How has ESN performed?
- ESN's total return (price change plus reinvested distributions) is charted at the top of this page. Switch the price chart to Total Return and pick a 1-year, 3-year, 5-year, or 10-year window to read the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over each horizon.
