The combination of a middling Process Pillar rating and a Low People Pillar rating limit  Global X Variable Rate Preferred ETF to a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Neutral.  The portfolio maintains a sizable cost advantage over competitors, priced within the cheapest fee quintile among peers.  

 The team managing the passive strategy earns a Low People Pillar. The fund's assessment garners an Average Process Pillar rating. The strategy's parent organization earns the firm an Average Parent Pillar rating, and this rating is inherited from vehicles belonging to the same branding entity and is indirectly assigned by an analyst.

Analyst Rating

Global X Variable Rate Preferred ETF earns an Average Process Pillar rating. Morningstar's evaluation of this security's process aims to determine the likelihood that it will outperform its Morningstar Category benchmark on a risk-adjusted basis over the long term. The most important driver of the rating is that this fund tracks an index. Historical data, like Morningstar's Active/Passive Barometer, finds that passively managed funds have generally outperformed their active counterparts, especially over longer time horizons. The size of the portfolio management team also bolsters the process. With four portfolio managers, the fund is reasonably well-resourced. Lastly, the process is limited by the parent firm's five-year risk-adjusted success ratio of 28%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and outperformed their respective category's median Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return for the period. The parent's subpar success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup.

The investment strategy as stated in the fund's prospectus is: 

The investment seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the ICE U.S. Variable Rate Preferred Securities Index.  The fund invests at least 80% of its total assets, plus borrowings for investments purposes (if any), and in the securities of the underlying index and in American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") and Global Depositary Receipts ("GDRs") based on the securities in the underlying index. The underlying index is designed to track the broad-based performance of the U.S.-listed variable rate preferred securities market. It is non-diversified.  

 This strategy's 12-month yield is 7.0%, higher than its average peer's 5.9%. It also has a 7.4% 30-day SEC yield (a measure similar to yield-to-maturity). Typically, higher yields come at the cost of higher credit risk.

Average

Process

Global X’s team receives a Low People Pillar rating. The primary detractor from the rating is the parent firm's five-year success ratio of 30%. The measure indicates the percentage of a firm's funds that survived and beat their respective category's median return for the period. The parent's modest success ratio suggests that the firm could do better across its fund lineup. The parent firm's five-year retention rate of 67% also weakens the team. The experience of the management team, which averages four years at this fund, limits the rating as well.

People

Mirae Asset Global Investments is a Korean asset manager and a key player in the Asian financial market. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mirae Asset Financial Group, founded by Hyeon Joo Park. Park’s leadership and entrepreneurial spirit have been the driving force behind the global rise of Mirae, and he holds a majority stake in the business. 
Mirae Asset has grown significantly over the years (USD 198 billion as of December 2022) across a diversified platform, of which about 60% of assets are managed in South Korea. We believe that Mirae’s core mutual fund business in the Asia-Pac region is relatively strong. It has a collaborative structure, a strong and large investment team, low manager turnover, competitive fees, and a disciplined approach to product-development pointing toward better stewardship practices relative to peers in these markets. However, this is in stark contrast to its exchange-traded fund business, which accounts for 41% of the total assets. 
The firm’s ETF lineup focuses largely on high-risk thematic strategies that seem gimmicky, emphasizing short-term asset-gathering. The firm appears to leverage trending topics such as robotics and artificial intelligence, virtual reality and gaming, and cloud computing. There’s a notable concern regarding the potential liquidation of these funds since they seem to be designed around investment fads. Furthermore, these products are often expensive, especially compared with broadly diversified index funds and ETFs. Unsurprisingly, Mirae's reflexive product-development strategy has led to an increase in fund closures.
Our experience engaging with the MAGI team to gather critical information for the parent assessment has not been as positive. It hasn’t been as transparent in its disclosures, and unlike its peers, its responsiveness has been inadequate. We prefer firms with a more transparent corporate culture. Overall, these actions hold us back, and the firm retains its Parent Pillar rating of Average.

Parent

Global X Variable Rate Preferred ETF

PFFV tracks an index of variable rate US preferred securities, selected and weighted by market value.

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Global X Variable Rate Preferred ETF is an ETF that focuses on variable rate preferred securities, offering unique benefits to income-oriented investors. Variable rate preferreds have adjustable coupon payments, providing potential for varying returns. PFFV has a heavy emphasis on the financial sector but offers a lower expense ratio compared to other similar ETFs.

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