State Street plans to bring ETFs to 401(k) market

State Street's Anna Paglia plans to push ETFs into the U.S. 401(k) retirement system. State Street's chief business officer Anna Paglia said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that State Street is working closely with regulators, investors and plan sponsors to overcome technical and regulatory barriers to get ETFs into 401(k) plans. She believes ETFs can play an important role in retirement portfolios, even though the current 401(k) system relies mainly on mutual funds. Paglia joined State Street in February this year and was previously the global head of ETFs at Invesco. She firmly believes that the low cost and tax efficiency of ETFs are its advantages, even though capital gains taxes do not apply to 401(k)s and intraday liquidity is not necessary in retirement accounts.