State Street Plans to Bring ETFs to 401(k) Markets

State Street's Anna Paglia plans to push ETFs into U.S. 401(k) retirement systems. State Street is working closely with regulators, investors and plan sponsors with the aim of overcoming technical and regulatory hurdles to get ETFs into 401(k) plans, Anna Paglia, State Street's chief business officer, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. She believes ETFs can play an important role in retirement portfolios, even though the current 401(k) system relies heavily on mutual funds. Paglia joined State Street in February, and was previously head of global ETFs at Invesco. She strongly believes that the low cost and tax efficiency of ETFs is an advantage, even though capital gains taxes don't apply to 401(k)s and intraday liquidity isn't necessary in retirement accounts.