Although its history dates back to the 1920s, Eaton Vance positions itself as a company that responds to changing investor demands by rolling out new products. In 2014, the company received regulatory approval for a new product called NextShares exchange-traded managed funds. These are designed to trade throughout the day like exchange-traded funds, but they would disclose holdings on a quarterly basis like mutual funds.
Eaton Vance manages several strategies, including domestic and international equities, municipal bonds, taxable bonds, alternatives and absolute return funds, which are unconstrained by traditional benchmarks. The firm offers specialized services to help investors develop municipal bond ladders to manage interest rate risk. It also manages closed-end funds covering various asset classes. A subsidiary, Parametric Funds, oversees a number of strategies that seek to manage risk and volatility by applying data-based rules.