Morgan Stanley Seeks to Offer Mutual Fund ETF Share Classes

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has joined a growing list of investment firms seeking approval to include ETF share classes for its mutual funds, a structure long employed exclusively by Vanguard Group.

The asset manager filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 29 seeking approval for the dual-fund structure, which only Vanguard is currently permitted to do, multiple news outlets note.

Morgan Stanley’s application, if approved, could potentially become far more significant to Wall Street than the recent landmark debut of bitcoin spot ETFs, and could reshuffle trillions in assets, Bloomberg reported.

Ben Johnson, Morningstar’s head of client solutions and asset management, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that six firms have now filed ETF-as-a-share-class applications: Morgan Stanley, Dimensional Fund Advisors, Fidelity, First Trust, F/m Investments and Perpetual US Services (PGIA).