PowerShares Cutting Fundamental ETF Expenses by Up to 21 Basis Points

PowerShares (IVZ) announced late Friday that it plans to slash expense ratios on its 11 exchange-traded funds that use Research Affiliates' fundamental indexing approach.

The ETFs now have expense ratios capped at 0.60%, according to a PowerShares spokesperson. Those fees will be reduced to a uniform 0.39% on Nov. 1.

The move comes after similar moves by a range of ETF providers this year, including The Vanguard Group and XShares Advisors. The price cuts also come as total assets in ETFs continue to grow—in September, those levels reached $587.8 billion, up from last September's $562.6 billion, according to data from the National Stock Exchange. (See story here.)

But consolidation is showing up in the industry. With that comes pressure on smaller providers. A general rule of thumb used by industry veterans is that ETFs need at least $100 million in assets to break even. Some put it higher—closer to $200 million—when all marketing and operational costs are included. (See related story in July's ETFR article "Survival of the Fittest?" here.) 

PowerShares, as an industry titan, certainly has the resources to wait out asset growth for funds that aren't instant hits. Many of the fundamental index-based ETFs receiving cost-cutting moves next month could be seen as falling within such a classification. 

In fact, only one of the fundamental index-based funds due price reductions in November has assets greater than $100 million. That's the PowerShares FTSE RAFI U.S. 1000 Portfolio (NYSEArca: PRF). It's a diversified fund that focuses on larger-cap stocks, unlike most of the other sector-based ETFs included in the group. 

Even with its broad appeal, PRF's nontraditional strategy has contrasted lately with its market-cap-sized indexing competitors. For example, the iShares Russell 1000 Index (NYSEArca: IWB) had lost 39.1% in the past 12 months through Friday. That beat PRF's total return of -42.5%, according to Morningstar. 

The PowerShares' fundamental-weighted ETFs are based on work done by Rob Arnott, founder and chairman of Research Affiliates. The funds track indexes that use four fundamental measures to rank a company's size: book value, cash flow, sales and dividends. They're operated in conjunction with the FTSE Group.

The RAFI index methodology weights stocks according to RAFI's fundamental scores given to each name.

"The PowerShares fundamental-weighted ETFs are an important alternative to cap-weighted portfolios seeking to provide investors higher returns with lower volatility over time," said Bruce Bond, chief executive of PowerShares, in a statement.

PowerShares is one of the industry's biggest players, with 140 different funds and $12.21 billion in assets under management.

Here's a list of RAFI funds and their asset levels through Friday: 

Name	Ticker	Assets ($ millions)
U.S. 1000	PRF	451.6
U.S. 1500 Small-Mid	PRFZ	80.8
Materials Sector	PRFM	3.6
Consumer Goods Sector	PRFG	3.2
Consumer Services Sector	PRFS	3.1
Energy Sector	PRFE	9.1
Financials Sector	PRFF	17.4
Health Care Sector	PRFH	11.7
Industrials Sector	PRFN	6.9
Telecom & Tech Sector	PRFQ	7.0
Utilities Sector	PRFU	8.3