Firm Sets Launch of Dividend ETFs

New York investment management firm WisdomTree set forth plans Tuesday to become the latest company to jump on the exchange-traded fund bandwagon, announcing a new family of ETFs set to launch Friday.

The firm plans to offer 20 ETFs, including three Japan-specific funds and four funds specializing in high-yielding equities outside the U.S. The funds, set to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange, will track "fundamentally weighted" dividend indices, rather than the market cap-weighted indices often used for ETFs.

"We believe our research demonstrates that we have found a better way to index," said Jonathon Steinberg, WisdomTree CEO, on a conference call Tuesday.

Steinberg said the company is seeking to capitalize on recent research that demonstrated dividends have traditionally composed the lion's share of returns to equity investors. ...