Watch Out for REIT ETF Changes

If you own any financial sector exchange-traded funds or are thinking of buying shares in such ETFs over the next few weeks, beware of a significant change that’s on the way.

After the close of business on Wednesday, Aug. 31, and effective Sept. 16, two leading index providers — S&P Dow Jones Indices and MSCI Inc. — will be changing the way they calculate their indexes upon which many financial sector ETFs are based. In both cases, stocks in real estate investment trusts, or REITs, will be removed from the general financial indexes and put into new equity REIT indexes.