1 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:12,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to Trallians. An Joelweber and I'm Eric. Eric. There's 2 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: been some headlines from Washington, d C lately that have 3 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:21,040 Speaker 1: been interesting, specifically around UM taxes, which you know, we 4 00:00:21,120 --> 00:00:27,920 Speaker 1: have a Democrat led House and they and Democrat president 5 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:30,480 Speaker 1: and so so we're seeing a lot of talk talk 6 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,480 Speaker 1: about taxes. And in a recent bill that was put 7 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,520 Speaker 1: forward by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon. UM it wasn't 8 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: initially even in the press release, but uh, it took 9 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:46,600 Speaker 1: aim at UH on e t F superpower, which is 10 00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: sort of the tax efficiency that's always been built into UM, 11 00:00:51,040 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: the et F structure. Uh So what about that? Uh 12 00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: caught your attention? And then what has been the aftermath 13 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: in the week plus since? Yeah, I mean there's been 14 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: a bunch of articles on it. UM and I'll read 15 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 1: to the Wall Street Journal headline. It's pretty basic. It 16 00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: says Democratic tax proposal takes aim at et F s 17 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,959 Speaker 1: and what they're trying to do is potentially tax the 18 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:19,200 Speaker 1: in kind creation redemption process UM. That process where and 19 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: we'll go into this a little more, where you exchange 20 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:23,760 Speaker 1: the stocks or bonds for shares of the e t F. 21 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:26,960 Speaker 1: There's no cash exchanging so ETFs are able to sort 22 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: of avoid some of the capital gains distributions that mutual 23 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: funds have to deal with UM, although mutual funds also 24 00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: have that ability, but largely speaking, in any given year, 25 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:40,800 Speaker 1: you might find mutual funds have like, I don't know, 26 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: six of them distributing capital gains, while only say five 27 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,760 Speaker 1: percent of e t F do. It's usually in that ballpark. 28 00:01:48,680 --> 00:01:52,320 Speaker 1: Now that said, you're not avoiding taxes as an ETF investor, 29 00:01:52,400 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: you're sort of just deferring them so that when you 30 00:01:55,440 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: sell your e t F, you get taxed on those gains. 31 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: You just don't get a sort of ongoing distribution because 32 00:02:02,440 --> 00:02:05,200 Speaker 1: of what other people in the funded. So I've always 33 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: been to the thought that the e t F was 34 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:11,040 Speaker 1: like fair um, whereas the mutual fund, if anything, should 35 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: be given some relief to make it more like an 36 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,000 Speaker 1: e t F where your tax based on what you do, 37 00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: not based on what someone else does. So hopefully we 38 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:22,480 Speaker 1: can dig into this, but that's ultimately one of their 39 00:02:22,480 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: superpowers because advisors, in particular, when have clients and taxable accounts, 40 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:29,440 Speaker 1: really like the fact that they can kind of sort 41 00:02:29,480 --> 00:02:32,760 Speaker 1: of have control over that when they're taxed so I 42 00:02:32,840 --> 00:02:36,560 Speaker 1: would still say that low cost, inter liquidity, transparency, those 43 00:02:36,639 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: things still make them a viable force even if this 44 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: were to go away. But it's a biggie okay. So 45 00:02:42,560 --> 00:02:45,040 Speaker 1: to walk us through the bill, the e t F 46 00:02:45,160 --> 00:02:48,120 Speaker 1: industry's reaction to that bill, and then some of the 47 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:51,360 Speaker 1: nuances of all things tax, we're gonna be joined by 48 00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:54,639 Speaker 1: Dave Nadig, who's the director of research at e t 49 00:02:54,800 --> 00:02:58,760 Speaker 1: F Trends, and Jeffrey Clone, professor of law at Fordham University, 50 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:02,280 Speaker 1: whose rees arch on this topic was actually cited by 51 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:08,440 Speaker 1: Senator Ron Wyden in the proposed bill this time on 52 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: trying the e t F S tax nightmare. Professor Cologne, 53 00:03:15,080 --> 00:03:19,480 Speaker 1: Dave Nateigg, Welcome to trillions. Thanks for having us, Okay, Dave, 54 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:22,440 Speaker 1: I want to start with you. Um, the status quo 55 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,200 Speaker 1: that sort of Eric referred to has been sort of 56 00:03:25,320 --> 00:03:28,160 Speaker 1: this this thing that has made the et F special 57 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: for a really long time. UM. And I want to 58 00:03:31,320 --> 00:03:33,320 Speaker 1: kind of rewind the clock here to to win this 59 00:03:33,440 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: news broke because you were at a meditation retreat um 60 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,400 Speaker 1: that was sort of interrupted I think by this news. So, 61 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:44,480 Speaker 1: so a what what happened um at this meditation camp 62 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:47,680 Speaker 1: whence uh this headline crusted your It was it was 63 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 1: as I was on the way out the door, so 64 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: luckily it didn't interrupt anything, and I was able to, 65 00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:53,880 Speaker 1: you know, drop in and find my inner piece for 66 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,120 Speaker 1: four or five days. But uh, you know, this was 67 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: a classic Friday afternoon press release. UM. You know, which 68 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,600 Speaker 1: the fine it's industry is just really addicted to dropping 69 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: these major ideas on Friday, SIP four thirty. I don't 70 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: know what it is, um, but you know, the proposal 71 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,280 Speaker 1: is really pretty straightforward, and and it's actually one that 72 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: professor suggested in one of his papers, which was just 73 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:18,240 Speaker 1: eliminating a single line of the tax code. Uh A 74 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: f F T two B sex if I can get 75 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: it off the top of my head, I'm sure something 76 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: to correct me if I'm wrong, which is a single 77 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: line in the tax code which exempts mutual funds both 78 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,480 Speaker 1: the you know, anything that's a registered investment company exempts 79 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:35,120 Speaker 1: them from having to effectively worry about the tax issues 80 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:38,720 Speaker 1: of in kinding out um or honestly and kind of 81 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:41,880 Speaker 1: in uh securities into the portfolio, which is which is 82 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,160 Speaker 1: a the though way E T s managed to maintain 83 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:48,760 Speaker 1: net asset value versus market price. Right that that creation 84 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:51,440 Speaker 1: redemption mechanism is why e t F s work. UM. 85 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,880 Speaker 1: Putting a giant barrier for taxes around that, UM could 86 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:57,520 Speaker 1: be interesting and problematic. We're gonna get into that, I'm sure, 87 00:04:57,640 --> 00:04:59,599 Speaker 1: but that was that was the thing that he dropped 88 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: out there. UM. And you know whether or not that 89 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: would raise substantial amounts of revenue, whether or not that's 90 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:09,159 Speaker 1: fair to investors, fair to the government, fair to non investors, 91 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:11,840 Speaker 1: I think that's probably what we're gonna dig into. And UM, 92 00:05:12,040 --> 00:05:14,279 Speaker 1: let me just jump in here. You wrote an article 93 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:17,360 Speaker 1: about this and you opened up with y R E 94 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:19,600 Speaker 1: t S tax efficient. So just as a primer to 95 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,360 Speaker 1: people who may not understand exactly how they are, could 96 00:05:23,400 --> 00:05:25,760 Speaker 1: you go through what you expected? Yeah? Sure? So so 97 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:27,720 Speaker 1: you know, I think most folks know that e t 98 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 1: fs create and redeemed shares pretty much continuously. Uh. A 99 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:34,640 Speaker 1: bigger E t F top E t F that's trading 100 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:36,760 Speaker 1: every day, you know, like water is going to have 101 00:05:36,880 --> 00:05:39,800 Speaker 1: multiple creations and redemptions to day. Uh. And one of 102 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: the things that the issuer gets to do on a 103 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 1: redemption is choose which tax lot to hand back out 104 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: to the authorized participant. In the process of doing that redemption, 105 00:05:49,279 --> 00:05:51,560 Speaker 1: and of course they always pick the tax plot that 106 00:05:51,680 --> 00:05:54,040 Speaker 1: has the lowest basis because that's the one that would 107 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 1: generate the most gains if they ever had to sell it. Uh, 108 00:05:57,400 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 1: And they hand that back out to the AP. The 109 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:02,960 Speaker 1: AP because they're a market maker to just chooses to 110 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,039 Speaker 1: take to mark to market, which is what every market 111 00:06:05,080 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: maker does. UH. That that's a choice that they get 112 00:06:07,760 --> 00:06:10,120 Speaker 1: in the tax code is to either treat trading as 113 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:12,760 Speaker 1: an inventory process or as a trading on your own 114 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:15,520 Speaker 1: account process. All market makers choose to do that as 115 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:19,479 Speaker 1: an inventory process. So the incoming shares at the market 116 00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:21,960 Speaker 1: maker come in mark to market and they'll just pay 117 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: ordinary gains if they then later sell those at a gain, 118 00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,320 Speaker 1: because that's how market making works. The fund doesn't have 119 00:06:27,520 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: to book a gain on that lower basis that they 120 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:32,840 Speaker 1: handed out to that mark to market UM. So it 121 00:06:32,880 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: acts as a form of tax deferral. It's effectively like 122 00:06:35,360 --> 00:06:37,120 Speaker 1: having a giant four ohn K that is an e 123 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 1: t F where you only have to worry about paying 124 00:06:38,839 --> 00:06:41,240 Speaker 1: taxes on the way out. Okay, Professor Kloon, I want 125 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:43,920 Speaker 1: to bring you in. So everything we've talked about, I'm 126 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:47,520 Speaker 1: just curious, why why do we need to change anything? Okay, yeah, no, 127 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:51,040 Speaker 1: I think uh Dave lighted out very very clearly the 128 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: benefits for e t F S a couple of things. 129 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,640 Speaker 1: I think the thing that stimulated this proposal UM had 130 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:01,160 Speaker 1: had spoken to Widen's office was actually some reporting that 131 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:03,599 Speaker 1: was done by you guys at Bloomberg, you know, Zack 132 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:08,240 Speaker 1: Mider and Rachel Evans on Basically I call them pathologies, 133 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:11,600 Speaker 1: but using I think in what what you know most 134 00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:15,080 Speaker 1: tax commentators would say is inappropriate way A fifty two 135 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:18,360 Speaker 1: B six, Right, They've kind of built on this. Uh, 136 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:22,360 Speaker 1: some transactions that you know, viewed from the lens of 137 00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,480 Speaker 1: UH tax person and even even Congress now are are 138 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,600 Speaker 1: somewhat abusive, and we will talk about those. Those those 139 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:33,080 Speaker 1: are the so called heartbeat trades, right, UM, and I 140 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,160 Speaker 1: think that's what stimulated the interest UM. And then when 141 00:07:36,240 --> 00:07:39,680 Speaker 1: they started to look at the potential revenue that that 142 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:42,120 Speaker 1: could be raised by this provision. I know that there 143 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:44,960 Speaker 1: is a preliminary estimate by the Joint Committee that it's 144 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: about two hundred billion dollars over the next ten years. Uh. 145 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:52,400 Speaker 1: You know, it's preliminary. I and I'm sure that doesn't 146 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:55,160 Speaker 1: take into account, you know, adjustments that would be made. 147 00:07:55,520 --> 00:07:57,920 Speaker 1: But I think the combination of those two things is 148 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,880 Speaker 1: like reading about the abuses and I know it's been 149 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:03,000 Speaker 1: talked about on the Joint Committee for a while, and 150 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:06,560 Speaker 1: then also basically the need for revenue to pay for 151 00:08:07,200 --> 00:08:11,160 Speaker 1: the other items in the in the in the tax proposals, right, 152 00:08:11,360 --> 00:08:13,320 Speaker 1: So a combination of those two it kind of brought 153 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:17,360 Speaker 1: this to the forefront. Um. Uh and that's kind of 154 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:19,560 Speaker 1: that's kind of where we are today. Go ahead, I 155 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:22,520 Speaker 1: just want to I totally remember that article. We actually 156 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:26,000 Speaker 1: had Rachel and Zach on the show. I did, I didn't. 157 00:08:26,280 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: I think dodge was probably not the right word. I 158 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: don't know if dirty secret was the right word. That's 159 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: a debate for another day, but or maybe it is 160 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:37,120 Speaker 1: for today. But um, I saw you wrote an article 161 00:08:37,240 --> 00:08:42,360 Speaker 1: about this before that. That article came out, right, so 162 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:45,079 Speaker 1: my article, let me let me just be clear. My article, uh, 163 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:47,480 Speaker 1: it came out in two thousands seventeen, but I it 164 00:08:47,559 --> 00:08:49,880 Speaker 1: was kind of written in two thousand fifteen. So in 165 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:52,679 Speaker 1: the article, I didn't discuss the heartbeat trades. I was 166 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:57,360 Speaker 1: just looking at this uh um provision. Uh. You know, 167 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:02,560 Speaker 1: even even disregarding the herd be trades and the portfolio adjustments. UH. 168 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: And I just looked at it and said, I didn't 169 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:07,520 Speaker 1: really think it was really sound tax policy. And you know, 170 00:09:07,640 --> 00:09:10,560 Speaker 1: my my point was that it gave et FU an 171 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:15,040 Speaker 1: advantage over mutual funds. Basically identical mutual funds. You followed 172 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: the same structure, sorry, this the same UH index, the 173 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:23,240 Speaker 1: same investments, but mutual funds will inevitably end up paying 174 00:09:23,640 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: you know, whatever we call a d basis points maybe 175 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:29,240 Speaker 1: a hundred basis points more a year in taxes. Right, Um, 176 00:09:29,720 --> 00:09:33,800 Speaker 1: it's not insignificant for long term taxable investors. And so 177 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: that I kind of looked at it, and I just 178 00:09:35,440 --> 00:09:38,679 Speaker 1: kind of critiqued it from a tax policy point of view, 179 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: and and I didn't really see much justification. So just 180 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,840 Speaker 1: going back, this provision was originally put in in nineteen 181 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:50,000 Speaker 1: sixty nine. Prior to sixty nine, corporations didn't pay tax 182 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,880 Speaker 1: on distributions of securities appreciated securities. Sixty nine Congress UH 183 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:58,760 Speaker 1: starts to curtail that, but exempts mutual funds. So back 184 00:09:58,800 --> 00:10:01,160 Speaker 1: then it was only s N and open end mutual 185 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:05,360 Speaker 1: funds goes along. In eight six Congress says all corporations 186 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:08,079 Speaker 1: are going to pay tax on the distribution of appreciated 187 00:10:08,120 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: property after six, but they continue the exemption for mutual funds. 188 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:14,240 Speaker 1: It just moves to a different part of the of 189 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:16,920 Speaker 1: the code. And so this was out there, you know, 190 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,560 Speaker 1: in eight six. But stay've kind of noticed that mutual 191 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:24,679 Speaker 1: funds is rarely rare for them to make in kind distributions. Uh, 192 00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: not impossible, but very rare. Most mutual funds, my understanding, 193 00:10:28,720 --> 00:10:31,839 Speaker 1: is promised to only make cast distributions for up to 194 00:10:31,920 --> 00:10:34,880 Speaker 1: like two fifty thousand, which covers you know, all all 195 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:40,679 Speaker 1: almost everyone's distributions. But uh, what happened was this was 196 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,960 Speaker 1: there and then the E t F industry I think, uh, 197 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 1: you know the person that invented it. Um, this allowed 198 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,360 Speaker 1: the E t F industry to kind of grow, right 199 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:53,679 Speaker 1: because the creation and redemption process is fundamental. I call 200 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: it part of the d n A of E t 201 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:58,280 Speaker 1: F s because it allows the n a V to 202 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: kind of stick prettys to the trading price where everyone 203 00:11:01,880 --> 00:11:04,240 Speaker 1: else is buying. And if it doesn't, people come come 204 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:07,839 Speaker 1: in and make profits, and by them making profits, it 205 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,880 Speaker 1: keeps the n a V uh and market price uh 206 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,040 Speaker 1: pretty much in line. That makes it then beneficial for 207 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:17,600 Speaker 1: people to be able to buy sell short right options 208 00:11:17,679 --> 00:11:20,440 Speaker 1: on it UM and it eliminates some of the problems 209 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,040 Speaker 1: that we had with discounts and premiums and closed in 210 00:11:23,200 --> 00:11:25,719 Speaker 1: fund right. So closed end funds are almost now kind 211 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 1: of a footnote in the history of investment companies UM. 212 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,199 Speaker 1: And so what we have left are, you know, basically 213 00:11:32,280 --> 00:11:35,040 Speaker 1: open end mutual funds, which you know we'll throw e 214 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:37,439 Speaker 1: t f s into there as well. But then ETFs 215 00:11:37,520 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: now are kind of uh, you know, everyone knows they've exploded, 216 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:43,679 Speaker 1: especially you know over the last ten years. We might 217 00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:47,079 Speaker 1: not be having this conversation if uh we were we 218 00:11:47,160 --> 00:11:49,720 Speaker 1: were we were a decade ago, from year two thousand 219 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: to two thousand ten when there really wasn't much gains. UM. 220 00:11:52,880 --> 00:11:57,280 Speaker 1: So Dave is entirely correct that it's the games, aren't 221 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:01,319 Speaker 1: They don't disappear. Uh, it's a ferral. So the shareholders 222 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,400 Speaker 1: are deferring tax on kind of these uh economic gains 223 00:12:05,440 --> 00:12:08,160 Speaker 1: that have arisen at the fund level. And it it's 224 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:11,080 Speaker 1: just it's important remember for taxable investors those gains are 225 00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: still there. Uh, they're not going to be UM, they 226 00:12:14,080 --> 00:12:19,720 Speaker 1: don't disappear However, we know that eventually for deferral benefits 227 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,680 Speaker 1: mostly benefits higher income people more than lower income people. 228 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: And then eventually the gains are deferred by for example, death, 229 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:31,120 Speaker 1: and then they become forgiven. But that applies to any 230 00:12:31,160 --> 00:12:34,080 Speaker 1: other game. You're you're hitting the nail right on the head, 231 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:36,079 Speaker 1: you know. I think the there are a lot of 232 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:37,920 Speaker 1: things that we can unpack here. I think it is 233 00:12:37,960 --> 00:12:39,679 Speaker 1: important to point out that e t f s were 234 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:42,880 Speaker 1: not designed to be a tax deferral vehicle. And honestly, 235 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: for the first ten years of the e t F industry, 236 00:12:45,200 --> 00:12:47,400 Speaker 1: nobody even talked about this. This was really when the 237 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,360 Speaker 1: advisor started finding e t s as a tool for 238 00:12:51,559 --> 00:12:54,679 Speaker 1: retail allocations. At the advisor, you know, face of the 239 00:12:54,720 --> 00:12:57,439 Speaker 1: coal mine, they're the ones that really latched onto this. 240 00:12:57,520 --> 00:12:59,600 Speaker 1: I want to say, two thousand three four five when 241 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,280 Speaker 1: we start did to see that early adoption by UM 242 00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:05,319 Speaker 1: by those financial advisors early in the context where we 243 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,120 Speaker 1: are now, I guess, UM, so so whatever designed to 244 00:13:08,240 --> 00:13:12,040 Speaker 1: be a tax deferral vehicle. However, without that, there are 245 00:13:12,080 --> 00:13:15,640 Speaker 1: all sorts of unintended consequences. Um you know, the numbers 246 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:17,719 Speaker 1: that are getting tossed around about you know, something like 247 00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,319 Speaker 1: maybe twenty billion dollars a year and new revenue that 248 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:22,600 Speaker 1: would come in if you got rid of this tax deferral. 249 00:13:23,440 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 1: I'm very skeptical of that number for a lot of reasons, 250 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,079 Speaker 1: not the least of which is the industry is very 251 00:13:28,120 --> 00:13:31,480 Speaker 1: good at figuring out how not to do things like that, right, 252 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 1: So I think you would just simply see new structures 253 00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:37,959 Speaker 1: take place. You would see new investment management philosophies take 254 00:13:38,080 --> 00:13:41,040 Speaker 1: place that UM that will delay and delay and delay 255 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:45,720 Speaker 1: booking those gains UM. The problems I have, though, are 256 00:13:45,960 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: that there's this idea that somehow this is taxing the 257 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 1: rich UM, and the evidence doesn't actually suggest that e 258 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:54,960 Speaker 1: t f s have really certainly in the last couple 259 00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: of years, when you look at the last few trillion 260 00:13:57,520 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: dollars that have showed up in the e t F market, 261 00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: it's pretty easy to point that to the discount brokerage community. 262 00:14:03,280 --> 00:14:05,400 Speaker 1: That's where that money is coming in. It's coming in 263 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,240 Speaker 1: from people SWAB and TV and FIDO accounts, their e 264 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:11,199 Speaker 1: trade accounts, the robin Hood accounts. That tends not to 265 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:14,480 Speaker 1: be the ultra high net worth investors way of accessing 266 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:19,400 Speaker 1: the markets. They're tending to go through private funds, private allocations, uh, 267 00:14:19,520 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 1: you know, other kinds of brokerage accounts that don't show 268 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:24,840 Speaker 1: up in those classic discount windows. So you know, the 269 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,520 Speaker 1: people who are benefiting most from this, I would argue 270 00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:30,320 Speaker 1: at somewhat unknowable, But I would argue is not the 271 00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:32,440 Speaker 1: ultra high net worth investor. It's actually sort of the 272 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: middle class investor who's managed to squirrel away an extra 273 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:39,120 Speaker 1: hundred grand outside their four own k. Right, Yeah, you're 274 00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: you raise, you raise a good point. Um. Uh. My 275 00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:47,160 Speaker 1: one response might be that, um, if we're looking at 276 00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:49,600 Speaker 1: this is what the I c I has raised in 277 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,000 Speaker 1: the last couple of press releases that you know, the 278 00:14:53,080 --> 00:14:56,240 Speaker 1: average southern median household I think is E t F 279 00:14:56,280 --> 00:14:58,280 Speaker 1: s are is about a hundred and twenty tho dollars 280 00:14:58,360 --> 00:15:02,360 Speaker 1: of taxable income. Uh, and that's certainly not uh not wealthy. 281 00:15:02,760 --> 00:15:05,560 Speaker 1: How you know. My response would be, let's just assume 282 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:09,080 Speaker 1: that this imposes higher taxes on E T f UH 283 00:15:09,360 --> 00:15:12,000 Speaker 1: shareholders than than now and I think that that that's 284 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: not an unreasonable assumption. You know. My my response would be, well, 285 00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 1: those all those households can just put more money into 286 00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:22,760 Speaker 1: their IRA sep IRA right. The for a household you know, 287 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:25,440 Speaker 1: for a very very filing jointly, it's up to about 288 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:28,080 Speaker 1: hundred nine eight thousand that you can put in. That's 289 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:32,720 Speaker 1: twelve thousand, sorry d thousand of yearly annual income UH. 290 00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:35,920 Speaker 1: And you can put in twelve thousand dollars. So if, 291 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,560 Speaker 1: for example, E t f s became kind of less 292 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:41,800 Speaker 1: tax favored than they are now, which is possible, those 293 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:45,040 Speaker 1: investors would certainly to me seem to have more room 294 00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: to to just shift into the tax exempt you know 295 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: investments iras roth IRA's set iras the whole alphabet. But 296 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:55,800 Speaker 1: then they're giving up their timing options. Right. The beauty 297 00:15:55,840 --> 00:15:57,760 Speaker 1: of the e t F has been you can actually 298 00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:00,680 Speaker 1: put a hundred thousand dollars away for your kids college, 299 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:03,000 Speaker 1: which is in six years, and you can put it 300 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:05,200 Speaker 1: away in the SPF A hundred or whatever you want, 301 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: some balance fund, whatever it is you choose to do, 302 00:16:07,800 --> 00:16:09,640 Speaker 1: and you don't have to worry about whether or not 303 00:16:09,760 --> 00:16:11,600 Speaker 1: that's going to get degraded over the next six or 304 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:14,040 Speaker 1: seven years because of fund. All of a sudden throws 305 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,640 Speaker 1: off a teen percent capital gain because one giant shareholder 306 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,080 Speaker 1: decided to get out near an institution and therefore the 307 00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:22,520 Speaker 1: fund had to take had to take the hit. If 308 00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,320 Speaker 1: you look at the higher volume e t f s, 309 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:28,840 Speaker 1: the implication of all of a sudden taxing all of 310 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,280 Speaker 1: these gains continuously can be quite profound. A lot of 311 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:35,560 Speaker 1: e t f s actually have you know, full turnover 312 00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:38,920 Speaker 1: implied by their creation redemption mechanism on a monthly basis. 313 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: So if you think about that, what that would mean 314 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:45,520 Speaker 1: is that you effectively be constantly making these streams of 315 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:49,480 Speaker 1: distributions to investors simply to make the creation redemption mechanism 316 00:16:49,680 --> 00:16:53,640 Speaker 1: hold for NAV purposes. So you end up taking the 317 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:56,200 Speaker 1: n A V tracking function of e t f s 318 00:16:56,640 --> 00:16:59,960 Speaker 1: and burdening it with the taxes, which I worry could 319 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:03,720 Speaker 1: actually unwind some of what we see beneficial about the 320 00:17:03,840 --> 00:17:13,720 Speaker 1: NAV tagging structure. Just think about the way the e 321 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:16,399 Speaker 1: t F works. Shouldn't it be based on your action? 322 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:18,920 Speaker 1: It just it just seems like that, if anything, the 323 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:21,960 Speaker 1: mutual fund. Do you want a mutual fund? Or have 324 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 1: you ever gotten to capital gains just from just sitting there. 325 00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:27,800 Speaker 1: It's that, I think, is what really. It's not like 326 00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:30,639 Speaker 1: the e t f s dodging or getting away with anything. 327 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:34,240 Speaker 1: It's almost just like they're making it more fair and 328 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,480 Speaker 1: whether that was an accident From the early invention of 329 00:17:37,520 --> 00:17:39,520 Speaker 1: the e t F, again, they were really looking at 330 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,400 Speaker 1: how to just protect the investors of the fund from 331 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:46,359 Speaker 1: what other investors did. And that is something that Vanguard 332 00:17:46,400 --> 00:17:48,359 Speaker 1: struggle with a lot early on, and that's why they 333 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:51,159 Speaker 1: actually did not let certain investors in the fund. They 334 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:54,320 Speaker 1: didn't want to incur costs in the funds. So the 335 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 1: e t F externalizes costs, and one of those is 336 00:17:58,440 --> 00:18:01,520 Speaker 1: your own taxation is on your actions. That just seems 337 00:18:01,680 --> 00:18:04,480 Speaker 1: pretty fair to me right now. You're you raised a 338 00:18:04,560 --> 00:18:07,680 Speaker 1: good point. Uh, sub Chapter M has you know, I 339 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:12,080 Speaker 1: hope that at a minimum that UM at least the 340 00:18:12,400 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: public discussion of this proposal could kind of, you know, 341 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:19,159 Speaker 1: hopefully whatever happens to to this going forward is at 342 00:18:19,240 --> 00:18:22,080 Speaker 1: least at a minimum stimulate some kind of discussion of 343 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:24,920 Speaker 1: how we should kind of rewrite It's it's called sub 344 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: Chapter M of the Internal Revenue Code, but the rules 345 00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,399 Speaker 1: for taxation of investment company for for some of the 346 00:18:30,560 --> 00:18:36,200 Speaker 1: issues that that you you UM and also Dave have raised. UM. Uh, 347 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:40,200 Speaker 1: it's you know, it's about sixty plus years uh, and 348 00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:43,840 Speaker 1: you know, with all of the changes in the tax code. 349 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:46,159 Speaker 1: Outside of this with all of the changes and kind 350 00:18:46,200 --> 00:18:49,840 Speaker 1: of the investment vehicles, it's just kind of a system 351 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: that's showing it's it's rust. Totally agree, totally agree. Um, Okay, 352 00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:58,440 Speaker 1: now you know, let's let's just go back to to 353 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,680 Speaker 1: your point here. What pends on me you know, unfortunately 354 00:19:01,880 --> 00:19:06,639 Speaker 1: or or the structure of of uh sub Chapter M 355 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:12,000 Speaker 1: is that basically the the investment company calculates, right, it's 356 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:14,639 Speaker 1: tax like a corporation. If it doesn't distribute, it's going 357 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,560 Speaker 1: to pay tax like a corporation. So it calculates all 358 00:19:17,640 --> 00:19:22,280 Speaker 1: of the investment income, including the gains, dividends, short term gains. Uh. 359 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:26,320 Speaker 1: It calculates all that and then it basically can avoid 360 00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:32,960 Speaker 1: tax by making distributions. Okay, Uh, and uh that's you know, 361 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:36,240 Speaker 1: that's kind of the system that we have. Uh. Your 362 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:40,280 Speaker 1: system would be basically basically would make each mutual fund 363 00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:42,679 Speaker 1: investment into kind of like a big era. Right if 364 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:44,359 Speaker 1: as long as I don't sell, it's kind of what 365 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 1: we call a consumption tax. Right, as long as I 366 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:49,119 Speaker 1: don't sell, so it's call it your four oh one K. 367 00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 1: As long as I don't pull it out, I don't 368 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,560 Speaker 1: pay any tax. I'm just not sure we're we're quite 369 00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:56,280 Speaker 1: ready to go there. And then one of the if 370 00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:58,600 Speaker 1: we step back, you know, we're trying to kind of 371 00:19:58,680 --> 00:20:00,680 Speaker 1: do a lot of things. It's like twist right, Eventually 372 00:20:00,680 --> 00:20:03,280 Speaker 1: you're gonna fall down. But you know, the the original 373 00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,920 Speaker 1: idea behind taxing investment companies mutual funds was that you'd 374 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,560 Speaker 1: roughly get you know, it was designed for the small 375 00:20:10,600 --> 00:20:13,840 Speaker 1: guy to be able to get uh diversification, okay, and 376 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:16,600 Speaker 1: then you'd roughly get the same tax consequences as if 377 00:20:16,640 --> 00:20:20,639 Speaker 1: you invested directly. So if the investment company gets uh, 378 00:20:20,880 --> 00:20:23,719 Speaker 1: interest income, you get passed through his interest income. If 379 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:25,879 Speaker 1: they get a long term capital gains, they get passed 380 00:20:25,920 --> 00:20:28,240 Speaker 1: through to you as a long term capital gains. And 381 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:30,800 Speaker 1: so if you went to is uh what you know? 382 00:20:31,160 --> 00:20:32,920 Speaker 1: I know Dave has made this point. Other people have 383 00:20:33,080 --> 00:20:35,399 Speaker 1: made the point that let's just make sure that if 384 00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:37,520 Speaker 1: if I don't do anything, if I don't receive anything, 385 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:39,680 Speaker 1: I don't pay any tax. Then it kind of turns 386 00:20:39,720 --> 00:20:42,200 Speaker 1: it into a big IRA And I'm not sure that 387 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,800 Speaker 1: we should distinguish, you know, we should give that benefit 388 00:20:45,880 --> 00:20:49,920 Speaker 1: to investment companies versus individual investing are what Dave alluded 389 00:20:49,960 --> 00:20:53,880 Speaker 1: to this uh kind of direct indexing that's that's potentially 390 00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:56,359 Speaker 1: coming down there. There's a big difference because in an 391 00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:58,879 Speaker 1: ira A, one of the reasons you get tax deferl 392 00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,119 Speaker 1: in an ira A is because you should be making 393 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,760 Speaker 1: transactions over time. Right, So if I'm a equity as 394 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:08,040 Speaker 1: a thirty year old, I definitely should be selling down 395 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:11,800 Speaker 1: some of that equity as I approach. So there isn't 396 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:15,200 Speaker 1: there's a societal good and saying, hey, you know what, 397 00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:17,840 Speaker 1: mr six year old, We're gonna let you sell down 398 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:21,359 Speaker 1: some of your highly appreciated stock so that you can 399 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:23,639 Speaker 1: do a better thing and get a little bit safer 400 00:21:23,760 --> 00:21:26,280 Speaker 1: in your allocation. That's a little different than what we're 401 00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:29,719 Speaker 1: talking about here with what happens inside in e t F, right, 402 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,800 Speaker 1: because the main benefit to society of E t F 403 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:35,959 Speaker 1: tax deferral is the fact that when those things are 404 00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:38,679 Speaker 1: eventually taxed, they will most likely be taxed at ay 405 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:42,040 Speaker 1: much higher level because all of the gains have instead 406 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:45,639 Speaker 1: been embedded into the fund and thus invested on behalf 407 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:49,240 Speaker 1: of the government who will ultimately tax them. So there, 408 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:51,640 Speaker 1: I get what you're saying, but there is a there's 409 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:55,080 Speaker 1: a different reason for it. In uh in an ira, 410 00:21:55,320 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: which is to engender actually useful behavior for society. We're 411 00:22:00,080 --> 00:22:02,320 Speaker 1: versus the E T F, which I've always argued as 412 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:04,760 Speaker 1: like Eric was saying, it's much more about tax fairness. 413 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:07,120 Speaker 1: It's much more about not getting hit with the tem 414 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:09,680 Speaker 1: per cent you know, you know, capital gains distribution a 415 00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:11,800 Speaker 1: week after you put your money in, which I've gotten 416 00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:15,000 Speaker 1: those emails from advisors before, believe me. And and that's 417 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 1: a that's a genuine hit. So there's always this robbing 418 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:20,520 Speaker 1: the future to pay for the past, or to robbing 419 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:22,760 Speaker 1: the robbing the present to pay for the future, and 420 00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,240 Speaker 1: vice versa, and Washington loves to do that, and you 421 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:28,359 Speaker 1: know that never works out well anyway. Um I what 422 00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:33,280 Speaker 1: I worry about is simply eliminating the single line item 423 00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: here without as you pointed out, Jeff, a comprehensive review 424 00:22:37,720 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: of of all of the implications of this taxation is 425 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,439 Speaker 1: exactly the kind of hand handed move we get out 426 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,320 Speaker 1: of Washington all the time that has tons of unintended 427 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:49,199 Speaker 1: consequences that nobody has even done the map on right now, 428 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:51,359 Speaker 1: I think, and also I think a lot of normal 429 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:53,840 Speaker 1: people look at this and they go, Okay, I get it. 430 00:22:54,080 --> 00:22:57,000 Speaker 1: Only half the country actually owns stocks at all, so 431 00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: you are looking at just one half of the country 432 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:01,960 Speaker 1: benefiting here. I get that a lot of the lower 433 00:23:02,040 --> 00:23:04,680 Speaker 1: income folks don't get this benefit, and that's that's a 434 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: fair point. That said, when you turn it relativity in 435 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,280 Speaker 1: another way, I think a lot of people are like, well, 436 00:23:12,320 --> 00:23:14,760 Speaker 1: why mess with small investors using e t F. There 437 00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:18,880 Speaker 1: are much bigger fish to go after on the tax front. 438 00:23:19,640 --> 00:23:22,160 Speaker 1: There's a lot of loopholes to go after. So there's 439 00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:26,359 Speaker 1: also the relativity issue as well, looking at it versus 440 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:31,680 Speaker 1: other situations where some really really rich people institutions get 441 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:35,639 Speaker 1: away with not paying taxes or just direct indexing, right. 442 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:38,240 Speaker 1: I mean that to me would be the immediate impactly 443 00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,680 Speaker 1: at the switch on this, every hundred thousand dollar plus 444 00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:43,959 Speaker 1: investor would immediately become a direct investing. Your client end 445 00:23:44,040 --> 00:23:46,119 Speaker 1: up with better tax treatment than they're getting out of 446 00:23:46,119 --> 00:23:48,000 Speaker 1: the e t F honestly, because for the most part 447 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:50,760 Speaker 1: they'll be able to carry tax losses forward, which is 448 00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,080 Speaker 1: not something the average dollar investors spends much energy on. 449 00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:57,159 Speaker 1: So if anything, I'm removing this from the e t 450 00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,400 Speaker 1: F would shove everybody in that sort of mass affluent 451 00:24:00,480 --> 00:24:02,639 Speaker 1: market out of e t F s, which would be 452 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:04,439 Speaker 1: bad for the E t F market, would be bad 453 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,719 Speaker 1: for individual investors, for whom that is their best option 454 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,639 Speaker 1: at the benefit of you know, the parametrics and the 455 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,320 Speaker 1: canvases of the world. Yeah. No, I I would I 456 00:24:14,359 --> 00:24:17,920 Speaker 1: would agree that something like this could stimulate uh, you know, 457 00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,800 Speaker 1: I mean, but that that's already on the horizon, right, 458 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:23,760 Speaker 1: you know, JP Morgan, Vanguard, black Rock, They're already looking 459 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:26,760 Speaker 1: at uh direct indexing direct I call it direct investing. 460 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,800 Speaker 1: Dave calls it direct indexing right where you would be 461 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,960 Speaker 1: treated as a holding those shares directly, right, and so 462 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,280 Speaker 1: you could do the tax loss harvesting. Um, you could 463 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:40,840 Speaker 1: defer the gains. You would make an essence that decision 464 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:44,919 Speaker 1: subject to the robot and whatever rules you've set up. Um. 465 00:24:45,560 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: And I think that that's an important thing to kind 466 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,320 Speaker 1: of look at. UM, let's kind of look you know. 467 00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:54,040 Speaker 1: I think it's important to talk about the real stimulus 468 00:24:54,119 --> 00:24:57,399 Speaker 1: for this. I think was again the article in Bloomberg 469 00:24:57,480 --> 00:25:01,040 Speaker 1: and by another financial journalists at Facts, said Elizabeth Kashner 470 00:25:01,359 --> 00:25:04,119 Speaker 1: that talks about the heartbeat trades, right. Um. And so 471 00:25:04,240 --> 00:25:06,720 Speaker 1: if we separate just the in and out, here's the 472 00:25:07,080 --> 00:25:09,800 Speaker 1: SMP five hundred. We go in and out, in and out, 473 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:13,280 Speaker 1: there's no changes. I'm almost you know, saying, well, that 474 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:15,920 Speaker 1: might not be a horrible thing, right, If we have 475 00:25:16,080 --> 00:25:19,600 Speaker 1: no change in the underlying portfolio, fine we we let 476 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,280 Speaker 1: we let it run, right. Um, And that's that's roughly 477 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:25,240 Speaker 1: if I just held the underlying SMP five hundred shairs, 478 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,320 Speaker 1: nothing change. We just let it run until I, like 479 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,960 Speaker 1: Eric says, until I sell. The problem is, uh, these 480 00:25:32,119 --> 00:25:35,359 Speaker 1: things that are referred to as heartbeat trades, and just 481 00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,560 Speaker 1: for the listener, they're basically is a fund has to 482 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,320 Speaker 1: sell some of its securities or disposed of them. If 483 00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 1: it sold them, it would have gain, which should be 484 00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:48,080 Speaker 1: tax then to all shareholders. Um. What it does then 485 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:52,320 Speaker 1: is as reported, is that a market maker a bank 486 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:54,920 Speaker 1: will come in and fund will say, oh, I have 487 00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:57,200 Speaker 1: to get rid of shares that are worth a billion 488 00:25:57,320 --> 00:25:59,600 Speaker 1: dollars and you know I have a billion dollars of 489 00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:01,639 Speaker 1: gain if I sell them. There's a billion dollars of 490 00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:05,000 Speaker 1: game for everyone. So two days before or three days 491 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,919 Speaker 1: before someone will deposit, Uh, they'll create a billion dollars 492 00:26:08,960 --> 00:26:12,600 Speaker 1: worth of shares um with the basket. And then you 493 00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,880 Speaker 1: know at the rebalanced date, A billion dollars goes out 494 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,800 Speaker 1: to in a redemption, but the shares that go out 495 00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:22,200 Speaker 1: are not a pearl rata share of all of the 496 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,160 Speaker 1: UH shares in the SMP five hundred, but the ones 497 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,159 Speaker 1: that have the gain. So if you step back and 498 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: look at this, I think most tax people would say, well, 499 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: what's really happened is the market maker has just exchanged 500 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:37,719 Speaker 1: a portfolio of shares one through four hundred and ninety 501 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:42,920 Speaker 1: for a portfolio of shares four five hundred. We just 502 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:45,840 Speaker 1: swap shares. I think it's actually worse than you think 503 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:47,760 Speaker 1: it is. I mean, if you if you're if you're 504 00:26:47,760 --> 00:26:50,240 Speaker 1: approaching this as some sort of abuse of the system, 505 00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,480 Speaker 1: there's actually no requirement anywhere in there that that it's 506 00:26:54,800 --> 00:26:57,359 Speaker 1: versus one. It can be five hundred and five hundred 507 00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:00,200 Speaker 1: in both directions as long as there's enough space in 508 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,400 Speaker 1: between that it can be deemed as having economic risk. 509 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,720 Speaker 1: So so, But but the problem is is the is 510 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,159 Speaker 1: in the US five hundred. That happens every day, right, 511 00:27:12,840 --> 00:27:14,719 Speaker 1: But my point is there are plenty of funds out 512 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,200 Speaker 1: there who don't have an exogenous reason to be unloading 513 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,639 Speaker 1: any of their shares and are simply doing this to 514 00:27:20,800 --> 00:27:24,600 Speaker 1: watch their tax liabilities away, and they're they're basically doing 515 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,159 Speaker 1: a creation for a hundred securities, and then they're doing 516 00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:29,720 Speaker 1: redemption for all hundred securities and they're just swapping the 517 00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,480 Speaker 1: tax lot. I'm saying, let's assume that that's okay, right, 518 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:36,400 Speaker 1: because the underlying portfolio stays the same at the fund level, 519 00:27:36,480 --> 00:27:38,440 Speaker 1: we get rid of the games. Okay, let's let's just 520 00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,760 Speaker 1: make an assumption that that's fine. My problem comes is 521 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,080 Speaker 1: when that you're taking out one share ten shares uh 522 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,879 Speaker 1: that otherwise have gain. You've just swapped one basket for 523 00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,399 Speaker 1: another basket. If you and I did that, Dave, you 524 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:54,480 Speaker 1: know it's taxable. If I swap you Microsoft for Amazon, 525 00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:57,840 Speaker 1: it's taxable. If I swap you Microsoft for Microsoft, it's 526 00:27:57,880 --> 00:28:00,879 Speaker 1: not taxable. But our basis would stay the same. My 527 00:28:01,040 --> 00:28:05,240 Speaker 1: concern is that the heartbeat trades um allow for an 528 00:28:05,320 --> 00:28:07,920 Speaker 1: e t F, but really not a mutual fund to 529 00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:10,800 Speaker 1: adjust as portfolio. So me, as an investor in the 530 00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:14,600 Speaker 1: e t F, my portfolio is actually changing, right. So 531 00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,920 Speaker 1: it's so Eric. It's it's not as if my view 532 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:22,040 Speaker 1: is you shouldn't be able, you should you should be taxed. Now, 533 00:28:22,440 --> 00:28:25,520 Speaker 1: when those portfolio changes happen if you held the shares 534 00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:27,560 Speaker 1: and you wanted to get rid of your tenant or 535 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,639 Speaker 1: fifteen shares, that's a taxable event. But yeah, but but 536 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:34,320 Speaker 1: but but that's not KAT, that's just custom baskets. Yeah. Yeah, 537 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:36,760 Speaker 1: but we we just we just encoded that in a 538 00:28:36,840 --> 00:28:38,440 Speaker 1: new law. I don't think we're gonna get rid of 539 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:40,880 Speaker 1: that part. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Like you're saying, 540 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:42,760 Speaker 1: if you go into a mutual fund, you're a pool. 541 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:45,920 Speaker 1: You're with a pooled it's a pooled investment. So therefore 542 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:50,280 Speaker 1: you guys are all that the portfolio manager, you're with them, 543 00:28:50,960 --> 00:28:53,080 Speaker 1: and you're buying and selling stocks, you should get text. 544 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:55,440 Speaker 1: I think generally people though, they don't look at it 545 00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: that way, and maybe that's the problem. They just see 546 00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:01,120 Speaker 1: if I buy and sell shares Microsoft, I get tax 547 00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:03,440 Speaker 1: when I do that, And in e t F is 548 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,080 Speaker 1: like that where I think people don't go and actually 549 00:29:06,160 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: put themselves inside the fund as if they're in this 550 00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:11,720 Speaker 1: nice little club of people who are all buying and 551 00:29:11,800 --> 00:29:14,520 Speaker 1: selling stocks together because the PM is doing it, and 552 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: so all they know is they just get hit with 553 00:29:16,160 --> 00:29:18,640 Speaker 1: the tax bill. So I don't know, I think there's 554 00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:20,840 Speaker 1: I know what you're saying, but don't you think people 555 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:23,600 Speaker 1: just are more thinking that it should just be like 556 00:29:23,680 --> 00:29:26,920 Speaker 1: when you buy and sell a stock on your own. Yeah, 557 00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,800 Speaker 1: but I don't think you should be able to accomplish 558 00:29:29,880 --> 00:29:32,400 Speaker 1: something through an e t F indirectly what's happening with 559 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,320 Speaker 1: Dave called them custom portfolios. Yeah, it's just a I 560 00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,640 Speaker 1: call them it even another variation of the heartbeat that 561 00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:43,680 Speaker 1: you shouldn't be able to adjust your portfolio without having 562 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:48,400 Speaker 1: making it a taxable event. Right. So when Bloomberg reported 563 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:49,920 Speaker 1: on this about a month ago when there was a 564 00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:53,160 Speaker 1: big rebalance, right, was that the Russell Russell three thousand, right, 565 00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:56,160 Speaker 1: forty or fifty shares? Uh? And and they just reported 566 00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,080 Speaker 1: everyone's doing heartbeat trades, right, And I said, well, wait 567 00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,160 Speaker 1: if I if I'm a share learn Russell three thousand, 568 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:03,680 Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, now I have a different 569 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: economic exposure. Um, you know, I think that that's an 570 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:10,719 Speaker 1: appropriate time to pay tax. So one, you know, if 571 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:13,360 Speaker 1: if if if if, if we could agree so on 572 00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,760 Speaker 1: one issue would be if Congress says, well, the in 573 00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,200 Speaker 1: and outs for the baskets, right, a whole basket in 574 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:23,560 Speaker 1: and out representative basket in and out. We could nothing's changing, 575 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:27,160 Speaker 1: my economic exposure isn't changing. That you know seems to 576 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: be Uh. I could see making an argument for not 577 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,920 Speaker 1: making that a taxable event. But when the e t 578 00:30:33,120 --> 00:30:36,680 Speaker 1: F s um underlying portfolio changes, uh, and then they 579 00:30:36,800 --> 00:30:40,160 Speaker 1: use it, they basically swapped those shares for shares from 580 00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 1: a market maker. I think that there's you know, there's 581 00:30:43,480 --> 00:30:48,719 Speaker 1: under tax common law that's that's permissible. Dave correctly stated 582 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,360 Speaker 1: that the SEC allows these custom portfolios. But just because 583 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:54,400 Speaker 1: the SEC allows it doesn't mean that they don't determine 584 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,600 Speaker 1: the tax benefits. So I which that's to me. Then 585 00:30:57,680 --> 00:30:59,920 Speaker 1: none of the issue here is right. We now codified 586 00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:02,560 Speaker 1: a whole bunch of things that when you wrote your paper, 587 00:31:02,800 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: you you very carefully go through and point out, these 588 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:07,240 Speaker 1: are from exceptions, this is what you know, this is 589 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:09,440 Speaker 1: the rule you need an exemption from to do this right. 590 00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:12,320 Speaker 1: Most of that's all gone away because the f E 591 00:31:12,440 --> 00:31:15,400 Speaker 1: t F rule. So we cleared up the operational side 592 00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,480 Speaker 1: quite dramatically, and to your point, we've done nothing on 593 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:20,440 Speaker 1: the tax side. So the tax side is just the 594 00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,520 Speaker 1: same as it ever was. Um. It's interesting to hear 595 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,640 Speaker 1: you say that you actually think the sort of custom 596 00:31:25,680 --> 00:31:29,480 Speaker 1: basketting issue is more problematic than the full basket heartbeat trading, 597 00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:32,480 Speaker 1: because the full back basket heartbeat trading is actually the 598 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,680 Speaker 1: thing that Elizabeth has been writing about and that I 599 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:36,960 Speaker 1: think is actually caused the most fear, which is the 600 00:31:37,040 --> 00:31:40,200 Speaker 1: idea that you can have a non economic activity, i e. 601 00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,000 Speaker 1: I'm going to give you all five hundred, You're gonna 602 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: give me all five hundred back in three days. That's 603 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:47,840 Speaker 1: clearly not a particularly economic activity that can have huge 604 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:52,280 Speaker 1: implications on the tach ight. The reason I'm not as 605 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 1: concerned about the entire baskets is you're correct that would 606 00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,680 Speaker 1: lower the game. They're using it just to lower the 607 00:31:59,720 --> 00:32:02,000 Speaker 1: part cential gain inside the t F. But if E 608 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,120 Speaker 1: t F never sells, that gain is never going to 609 00:32:04,200 --> 00:32:07,920 Speaker 1: be realized. Right. Um. That's why I don't have quite 610 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,240 Speaker 1: as much problem you know, from you know, it's not 611 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:12,760 Speaker 1: pure good tax policy, but I don't have quite as 612 00:32:12,840 --> 00:32:16,680 Speaker 1: much problem with that because all we're doing is lowering 613 00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:18,840 Speaker 1: the gain inside the E t F. But but if 614 00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:21,960 Speaker 1: the gain that never has intractable because how would you 615 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 1: possibly track that. Virtually every basket is optimized, like almost 616 00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:29,080 Speaker 1: literally every single creation basket ever done, has been optimized 617 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,920 Speaker 1: at least at one share level. Right, so we talk 618 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,160 Speaker 1: about replication, but we don't do this in half shares. 619 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:39,240 Speaker 1: Every basket is wrong. But but one thing you could 620 00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:42,360 Speaker 1: you could say is that we have a fifty two 621 00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:46,560 Speaker 1: b six. This provision continues, except that unless you distribute 622 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:50,840 Speaker 1: a if you distribute a custom basket, you get taxed, right. Uh, 623 00:32:51,320 --> 00:32:54,000 Speaker 1: obviously within reason if you if there are derivatives inside, 624 00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:57,320 Speaker 1: you can't transfer those within reason doesn't play very well. 625 00:32:57,400 --> 00:32:59,600 Speaker 1: And just like there's mostly not a lot of reason 626 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:01,280 Speaker 1: and these it's got to proportion them out right. You 627 00:33:01,360 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 1: have to distribute you know, you know the rulings that 628 00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:07,480 Speaker 1: they've given UH for closed end funds. So closed end 629 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:10,320 Speaker 1: funds don't get this rule, right they but the I 630 00:33:10,480 --> 00:33:13,080 Speaker 1: r S has allowed them in private letter rulings but 631 00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,040 Speaker 1: not not recently UH to get the benefit of this rule. 632 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:19,360 Speaker 1: By the statute, they don't issue redeemable securities, um. And 633 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,080 Speaker 1: so they just required that you basically have to distribute 634 00:33:22,120 --> 00:33:24,360 Speaker 1: a proad of share of each security with it with 635 00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:27,480 Speaker 1: some exceptions, and then a basically a proad of share 636 00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: of the basis right that goes out Um. You know, 637 00:33:30,360 --> 00:33:33,760 Speaker 1: something like that maybe maybe acceptable. Uh, And then the 638 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,400 Speaker 1: only thing that would be hit were what are the 639 00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,880 Speaker 1: kind of the trades that were talked about in the 640 00:33:38,920 --> 00:33:44,000 Speaker 1: Bloomberg article. Um, again, when there's a taxable acquisition. Uh, 641 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:46,040 Speaker 1: you know, mutual funds have to pay tax on that. 642 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,160 Speaker 1: But E t f s heartbeat their way out of that. 643 00:33:48,640 --> 00:33:52,200 Speaker 1: And that's something that I I think I don't think 644 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:54,520 Speaker 1: that there's much defense at all for that. When that 645 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:58,000 Speaker 1: article came out, and you know, one of the things was, well, um, Vanguard, 646 00:33:58,280 --> 00:34:01,440 Speaker 1: black Rock, these companies look at it as their fiduciary 647 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,360 Speaker 1: duty to protect their investors. So that would be the 648 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: defenses if they don't tax loss harvesting an advisor. This 649 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:14,200 Speaker 1: is what all fiduciaries do. No, I understand that argument. 650 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:15,960 Speaker 1: But then then the real question is, though what should 651 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,440 Speaker 1: be the rule? Well, yeah, and I think that's a 652 00:34:19,480 --> 00:34:30,680 Speaker 1: reasonable conversation. Okay, So, Dave, how existential is this for 653 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:33,759 Speaker 1: the E t F as we know it. I don't 654 00:34:33,800 --> 00:34:35,839 Speaker 1: think it's I don't the only place that could become 655 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:39,359 Speaker 1: an existential crisis. It's really messes up the market maker 656 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,839 Speaker 1: incentive to do creation redemption. So if if all you're 657 00:34:42,880 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: doing is going to the structure of the forty Act 658 00:34:47,200 --> 00:34:49,799 Speaker 1: fund that is the e t F and saying, hey, 659 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:51,560 Speaker 1: you know what, we're going to change the rules a 660 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,440 Speaker 1: little bit on what you have to distribute out to 661 00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 1: your shareholders like on the regular that's not that big 662 00:34:57,840 --> 00:34:59,920 Speaker 1: a deal. If what they instead do is try to 663 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:03,440 Speaker 1: come back at this through the AP and market making system, 664 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,840 Speaker 1: that actually has some really scary implications. Now that's not 665 00:35:06,960 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: what's being talked about. What's being talked about is simply 666 00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:12,319 Speaker 1: removing this at the at the Ford Act level. Um, 667 00:35:13,400 --> 00:35:15,279 Speaker 1: it's not existential. I don't think e t f s 668 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,000 Speaker 1: go away. The liquidity, the access, the cost advantages, none 669 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,840 Speaker 1: of those get changed at all. Um. The certainly the 670 00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:26,640 Speaker 1: sort of public acceptance doesn't just reverse all of a sudden. 671 00:35:26,680 --> 00:35:28,239 Speaker 1: People don't all of a sudden go back to trying 672 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,319 Speaker 1: to find an SMP five mutual fund because now all 673 00:35:31,320 --> 00:35:33,239 Speaker 1: of a sudden they don't get a tax advantage in 674 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,480 Speaker 1: their sp t F. It would simply put them at parody, 675 00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,760 Speaker 1: and at parody most mutual funds still looks substantially worse, 676 00:35:40,239 --> 00:35:43,600 Speaker 1: both on a cost basis, attracting basis, like you name 677 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:45,520 Speaker 1: it right, just just the fact they have to hold 678 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,160 Speaker 1: cash to meet redemptions means that in general, most mutual 679 00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:50,239 Speaker 1: funds are going to still look course. And and the 680 00:35:50,360 --> 00:35:52,680 Speaker 1: trend that we've seen and talked about on the podcast 681 00:35:52,760 --> 00:35:56,520 Speaker 1: before of mutual funds converting into e t s would 682 00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,200 Speaker 1: we do you think we'd see any changes there or 683 00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 1: you really more funds would continue to become ets. I 684 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,759 Speaker 1: think the tax advance, the tax efficiency of ets has 685 00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:08,000 Speaker 1: always been a bit of a nice to have for 686 00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:10,920 Speaker 1: some investors. It's a huge deal, right if you happen 687 00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:14,520 Speaker 1: to be a multimillion dollar taxable investor who has exhausted 688 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,600 Speaker 1: all of your other ways of squirreling money away, Yeah, 689 00:36:17,680 --> 00:36:20,240 Speaker 1: the ET has been really helpful for you. But ETFs 690 00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:23,279 Speaker 1: are increasingly used by huge institutions who don't care about this. 691 00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:25,840 Speaker 1: They're actually even being used inside a lot of rs 692 00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:28,000 Speaker 1: and borrowing ks at this point, and people don't care. 693 00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:32,040 Speaker 1: They're either um and obviously the hardcore trading community doesn't 694 00:36:32,040 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 1: care about any of this because none of them are 695 00:36:33,560 --> 00:36:35,480 Speaker 1: holding for long enough for these things to matter. So 696 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,960 Speaker 1: it's this narrow slice where yeah, they'd really care, but 697 00:36:40,120 --> 00:36:42,200 Speaker 1: that slice isn't gonna go to mutual funds. They're just 698 00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:44,839 Speaker 1: gonna direct index. Yeah, and let me jump in here. 699 00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:50,640 Speaker 1: I you know, you know it's killing Majol do these 700 00:36:50,680 --> 00:36:52,600 Speaker 1: pans with Dave all the time, and I love riffing 701 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:54,600 Speaker 1: off of him. I feel like we could just sit 702 00:36:54,680 --> 00:36:57,920 Speaker 1: here and go off for hours. But um, okay, a 703 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:00,880 Speaker 1: couple of things. Conversions. There was a version today actually 704 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,440 Speaker 1: a pot et FU converted to our pot mutual fund 705 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:06,800 Speaker 1: converted to an e t F. I don't think that 706 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:09,680 Speaker 1: was for tax tax reasons. It had been out performing 707 00:37:09,760 --> 00:37:11,880 Speaker 1: the pot e t f s and nobody was buying it. 708 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:14,480 Speaker 1: I think ETFs are just worth of fisher biting. But 709 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,440 Speaker 1: I do think the tax could help some mutual fund conversions. 710 00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:21,520 Speaker 1: Um that's one feature. Um. I was telling Jroll earlier 711 00:37:21,640 --> 00:37:24,800 Speaker 1: that tax the tax efficiency of ETFs is sort of 712 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:28,480 Speaker 1: like Superman's X ray vision. You know, it's he can 713 00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:30,799 Speaker 1: still fly, he can still do you know what he does, 714 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:33,320 Speaker 1: but he you know, he's he's gonna lose something. And 715 00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:36,480 Speaker 1: I agree. I think direct indexing is the natural benefactor 716 00:37:36,640 --> 00:37:39,759 Speaker 1: of those really wealthy people. That's who I think is 717 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,839 Speaker 1: really gonna just avoid it anyway, is the really wealthy people. 718 00:37:43,920 --> 00:37:45,880 Speaker 1: They're gonna But that's part of The problem is the 719 00:37:46,719 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 1: billion dollars were theoretically talking about when it's actually collected 720 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:53,799 Speaker 1: in three. Like if you eliminated it today and say, okay, 721 00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,120 Speaker 1: let's take a look in four and see how much 722 00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,080 Speaker 1: money we made, it's gonna be like five, not twenty, 723 00:37:59,160 --> 00:38:01,759 Speaker 1: because the industry is very smart at figuring out how 724 00:38:01,840 --> 00:38:04,319 Speaker 1: to get people out of this situation. And I think, um, 725 00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,240 Speaker 1: who would probably be the biggest loser would be active 726 00:38:08,480 --> 00:38:10,920 Speaker 1: e t F s like an ARC or a high 727 00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,960 Speaker 1: turnover smart beta e t F because a Vanguard ETF 728 00:38:15,200 --> 00:38:18,000 Speaker 1: is just not turning over that much anyway. Um, you know, 729 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:22,439 Speaker 1: Vogel always said index mutual funds are almost as tax 730 00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:24,800 Speaker 1: efficient as an e t F even with that special 731 00:38:24,880 --> 00:38:27,320 Speaker 1: thing you guys have, because we just don't trade so 732 00:38:27,600 --> 00:38:29,440 Speaker 1: many ways. This is what blows my mind. There's so 733 00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:31,640 Speaker 1: many ways around it. You run the whole thing through 734 00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:34,640 Speaker 1: a twenty percent Cayman subsidiary, it all goes away done. 735 00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:37,640 Speaker 1: Like I mean, there's so many ways around that problem 736 00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,440 Speaker 1: that if I wanted to run a three active equity 737 00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:42,719 Speaker 1: fund in an e t F structure and all this 738 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,080 Speaker 1: went away, I can think of three or four ways 739 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:46,719 Speaker 1: that I can do it. Right now inside the four 740 00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: D act that nobody's even talking about. So, Professor Cologne, 741 00:38:50,239 --> 00:38:55,759 Speaker 1: you've clearly kicked the hornets nest. Are you surprised? Um? Yeah? 742 00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:58,239 Speaker 1: And have you have you gotten emails? Like what kind 743 00:38:58,280 --> 00:39:00,480 Speaker 1: of feedback have you gotten from all this? It's funny 744 00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,600 Speaker 1: this article when I when I wrote it, um, uh, 745 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:06,279 Speaker 1: Dave was they would probably laugh. You guys will laugh. 746 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:08,040 Speaker 1: Is this is the only article that people wrote me 747 00:39:08,160 --> 00:39:11,040 Speaker 1: emails about. It wasn't a criticism, but it was like, Oh, 748 00:39:11,160 --> 00:39:14,359 Speaker 1: my name is uh Joe Smith. I have a ten 749 00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:17,880 Speaker 1: million I run ten billion dollar family foundation in uh 750 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:20,040 Speaker 1: San Francisco. Do you have any ideas and how we 751 00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:23,560 Speaker 1: could use this? Uh? Tons of those emails actually, so 752 00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:25,719 Speaker 1: people looked at it. Oh I didn't know about this? 753 00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:28,960 Speaker 1: How can I now build up on it? And three 754 00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:32,120 Speaker 1: three points? Basically, you know, Dave kind of alluded this, 755 00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:34,239 Speaker 1: and I think Davi would have better information than I would. 756 00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:36,719 Speaker 1: I don't think E t F s uh. You know, 757 00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:38,719 Speaker 1: this is a little bit of a roadbump for them. 758 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,360 Speaker 1: But if we look at the universe of investors, we 759 00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:44,359 Speaker 1: have the foreign investors, uh, you know, offshore pedge funds. 760 00:39:44,440 --> 00:39:48,440 Speaker 1: We have endowments, we have UM pensions, we have four 761 00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:50,400 Speaker 1: O one case four or three bs that are now 762 00:39:51,239 --> 00:39:55,280 Speaker 1: allowing purchases of ETF So there's just a huge universe 763 00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,759 Speaker 1: of tax exempt money out there that this is irrelevant. Right, 764 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:00,680 Speaker 1: So if any of the listeners say, oh my god, 765 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:02,440 Speaker 1: this is gonna I have E t f s in 766 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:04,960 Speaker 1: my era or anything like this, this will not affect 767 00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:08,080 Speaker 1: you one iota, right, And I just think that this, 768 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,480 Speaker 1: you know, worse comes to worse. It just makes E 769 00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:13,800 Speaker 1: t f s a little bit the proper what we 770 00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,840 Speaker 1: call tax clientele where you're gonna be late lyast taxes, 771 00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,200 Speaker 1: the tax exempts will will move more into this UM 772 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:22,759 Speaker 1: and then the taxable people may move to the extent 773 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:26,960 Speaker 1: that you can away from this now that um. Dave 774 00:40:27,040 --> 00:40:30,320 Speaker 1: Rais is a good point about the upcoming wave of 775 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:34,520 Speaker 1: direct indexing. Direct investing, the heartbeat trades, which allow you 776 00:40:34,640 --> 00:40:37,280 Speaker 1: to basically get rid of one or two or five 777 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:42,760 Speaker 1: securities without paying tax via redemption creation. When you're direct indexing, 778 00:40:42,800 --> 00:40:44,800 Speaker 1: you won't be able to do that, right, And so 779 00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:46,960 Speaker 1: that just kind of tells you if you can't do 780 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:49,600 Speaker 1: it directly owning the shares, why should you be able 781 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,399 Speaker 1: to do it indirectly via an E T F Right. 782 00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:55,239 Speaker 1: So I'm a I'm you know, I think this direct 783 00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:58,640 Speaker 1: indestining is a great thing, and allow the tax lost harvesting. Um. 784 00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:02,239 Speaker 1: But at the same time time for portfolio adjustments, Uh, 785 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:05,920 Speaker 1: they will be taxable. Uh if there are gains, right again, 786 00:41:06,040 --> 00:41:09,000 Speaker 1: you'll be able to tax loss harvest to mitigate some 787 00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:11,759 Speaker 1: of that. Knowing what we know about d C and 788 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:14,279 Speaker 1: how this has gone down, Professor Colin, what are the 789 00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:16,640 Speaker 1: odds that you think that this bill becomes a lot 790 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:24,680 Speaker 1: I'm gonna say not great because the uh there's eight 791 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:27,960 Speaker 1: neutral funds and ETFs are everywhere, so you're stepping on 792 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:31,840 Speaker 1: everyone's toes. I would hope at a minimum. Uh, you know, 793 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:34,040 Speaker 1: I'm not giving you an answer. I will see what 794 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:35,600 Speaker 1: happens in the Senate. I don't think it was in 795 00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:38,960 Speaker 1: the House bill on Friday, right, it didn't get in there. 796 00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:41,160 Speaker 1: I know that the White House is looking at this, 797 00:41:41,640 --> 00:41:43,400 Speaker 1: but we'll so we'll see what happens in the Senate. 798 00:41:43,680 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 1: I'm I can't give you a percentage, but at a minimum, 799 00:41:47,680 --> 00:41:49,839 Speaker 1: I hope it kind of stimulates a discussion of how 800 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,239 Speaker 1: in the US, you know, we can kind of fix 801 00:41:52,320 --> 00:41:57,040 Speaker 1: the taxation of kind of public investment companies for for everyone. Okay, 802 00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:59,799 Speaker 1: try and put some odds on that. Oh I'm gonna 803 00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:04,400 Speaker 1: I wanna say, under Okay, and and and Dave, how 804 00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,239 Speaker 1: about from your perspective, I think there's no chance that 805 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:11,360 Speaker 1: a straight up recision of a fifty two six happens 806 00:42:12,360 --> 00:42:15,480 Speaker 1: in this Congress. I don't. I would give that essentially 807 00:42:15,560 --> 00:42:17,400 Speaker 1: zero odds have happened. I think we'll get a bitcoin 808 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:21,680 Speaker 1: et f first. Um. As far as the broader issue, UM, 809 00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:25,719 Speaker 1: I think if we actually ended up with a I 810 00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:29,360 Speaker 1: mean to too crazy scenarios, either a clear mandate for 811 00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:33,759 Speaker 1: one party in every branch of the Congress and White House, 812 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,279 Speaker 1: which I don't think it's gonna happen anytime soon, or 813 00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:39,560 Speaker 1: actual bipartisanship to try to solve some real problems. I 814 00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:42,000 Speaker 1: don't think that's gonna happen anytime soon either. But with 815 00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:44,840 Speaker 1: one of those two priors, then yeah, I think a 816 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:47,520 Speaker 1: full re look at what we do in investment taxation 817 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:50,120 Speaker 1: would be phenomenal because it's a mess. Right. We haven't 818 00:42:50,160 --> 00:42:53,320 Speaker 1: had substantial look at that since what camera what was 819 00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:56,040 Speaker 1: s right, that was the last time we actually looked 820 00:42:56,080 --> 00:42:57,840 Speaker 1: at the tax code and did anything useful to it, 821 00:42:57,920 --> 00:42:59,759 Speaker 1: in my opinion, and since then all we've done is 822 00:42:59,880 --> 00:43:03,000 Speaker 1: or poke around the edges as a political football. But 823 00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:05,719 Speaker 1: the the Investment Task codes at nightmare, and so I'm 824 00:43:05,719 --> 00:43:08,759 Speaker 1: all for cleaning it up. Is this repeat? Like, if 825 00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:10,880 Speaker 1: I'm looking at this massive tax bill, say, I'm like 826 00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:13,640 Speaker 1: Senator Joe Mansion from West Virginia, who he's got a 827 00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,239 Speaker 1: lot of power, right, and I look at this tax bill? 828 00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:20,080 Speaker 1: Is that line really? Do I even know what that is? 829 00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:22,359 Speaker 1: Is that a deal breaker for most people? Or are 830 00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:24,920 Speaker 1: there other things in the bill that would be deal 831 00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:27,440 Speaker 1: breakers and need to be taken out and amended. I'm 832 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:31,080 Speaker 1: wondering if the all the horse trading they do doesn't 833 00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:34,359 Speaker 1: involve this, but this just stays in and everybody's happy 834 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,399 Speaker 1: and it does go through. I think it's hard to tell. 835 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:39,480 Speaker 1: Early on in my career I worked in d c 836 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:43,200 Speaker 1: UH and and saw some from the inside some some 837 00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:46,600 Speaker 1: of the way the tax legislation gets past UH. It's 838 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:48,680 Speaker 1: not pretty. That's why I just didn't really want to 839 00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:52,120 Speaker 1: give any any predictions. You know. The one thing that 840 00:43:52,280 --> 00:43:53,960 Speaker 1: kind of keeps it I think a little bit bigger 841 00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:57,279 Speaker 1: than than day zero, than than Dave's view is is 842 00:43:57,360 --> 00:44:01,319 Speaker 1: the revenue associated with it a poker full are not imaginary? 843 00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:05,920 Speaker 1: Not um, just because they're gonna need revenue offsets, right, um, 844 00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:08,360 Speaker 1: and for the pay for all of this. And so 845 00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:10,680 Speaker 1: I think in a normal year I would say it 846 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,640 Speaker 1: had very little chance. But this year I think it 847 00:44:13,840 --> 00:44:17,160 Speaker 1: definitely has some chance of staying in. That's fair, That's fair. 848 00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:20,200 Speaker 1: I have a cruel joke. I have a cruel joke. 849 00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:26,200 Speaker 1: You mean that has a heartbeat. Eric's Eric's gonna kill 850 00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:28,640 Speaker 1: me for that. He's way too proud of himself. I 851 00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:32,480 Speaker 1: can tell I'm looking at him, Okay, Professor Cologne Um. 852 00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:34,960 Speaker 1: Final question, which is the final question we ask of 853 00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:37,480 Speaker 1: everyone um on the on the podcast, what's your favorite 854 00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,239 Speaker 1: e F F ticker? Oh e t F ticker? Oh 855 00:44:40,320 --> 00:44:42,840 Speaker 1: my goodness. I will admit I don't own a d 856 00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:45,960 Speaker 1: t F uh. We we don't allow them through our 857 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:51,200 Speaker 1: retirement plan at Fordham. UM, but probably probably spy. I 858 00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,880 Speaker 1: have some familiarity with that. And Dave, I think, I know, 859 00:44:55,239 --> 00:44:57,319 Speaker 1: I think I've heard yours before. But what's your soup? 860 00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:02,360 Speaker 1: What's the soup? R? I'm still go move van Agri business. 861 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,720 Speaker 1: I still think it's the I mean for an amount 862 00:45:05,719 --> 00:45:11,440 Speaker 1: of tia. I mean, come on, all right, Dave, Dave uh, 863 00:45:11,680 --> 00:45:14,080 Speaker 1: Professor Cologne, thank you so much for joining us on Trillions. 864 00:45:14,440 --> 00:45:16,719 Speaker 1: Thank you right, thank you, Joel, thank you all right. 865 00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:24,480 Speaker 1: I never pleasure Dave speaking. Thanks for listening to Trillions. 866 00:45:24,719 --> 00:45:26,880 Speaker 1: Until next time. You can find us on the Bloomberg terminal, 867 00:45:27,000 --> 00:45:31,040 Speaker 1: Bloomberg dot com, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and wherever else you 868 00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:33,600 Speaker 1: like to listen. We'd love to hear from you. We're 869 00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:36,960 Speaker 1: on Twitter, I'm at Joel Weber Show. He's at Eric Faltunist. 870 00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,000 Speaker 1: You can find Dave Natick at Dave Natick, and you 871 00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:43,040 Speaker 1: can find Professor Cologne at Fordham Law n y C. 872 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:47,640 Speaker 1: This episode of Trillions was produced by Magnus Hendricks. Francessica 873 00:45:47,719 --> 00:45:50,279 Speaker 1: Levie is the head of Bloomberg Podcast. Bye.