Christian Magoon serves as president and senior managing director at Claymore Securities in Lisle, Ill. He took time out from his busy schedule Wednesday to talk to IndexUniverse.com.

IndexUniverse.com (IU): You've been promoted. How have your responsibilities changed?

Christian Magoon (Magoon): My biggest responsibility is over the other salesforces at Claymore. Before I ran our ETF [exchange-traded funds] group, I ran our unit investment trust development group. I also ran our ETF product development group, but we didn't have final approvals from the government to launch any products yet.

Then, we received permission from the SEC to start offering ETFs in September 2006. In April 2007, we formed a company within a company, which was the ETF group. It had its own salesforce, product development and marketing. We even moved to a new building.

IU: Then you gave up your duties on the UIT side?

Magoon: Yes, and I focused on product development as well as marketing and distribution of ETFs. At the same time, I still kept my duties over marketing strategy for the entire firm.

IU: What has changed now?

Magoon: At the end of 2007, that focus proved beneficial. We went from about $400 million in ETF assets to over $1.9 billion. So what I'm doing now is broadening my responsibilities a little more.

I'm still in charge of the ETF group and firmwide marketing. But I've added our UIT sales force and product development groups. So essentially, I'm in charge of anything dealing with UIT and ETFs as well as firmwide marketing.

IU: What's the breakdown in assets between the different segments?

Magoon: Our largest business is with closed-end funds. We're the seventh-largest in the industry. We're also a top three UIT provider and we're either the eighth-largest or 10^th-largest in the U.S. in ETFs, depending on what criteria you're using.

IU: Where's the growth coming from?

Magoon: Right now, since many of the closed-end funds are trading at discounts, there's not a lot of new issuance taking place. And we don't expect much growth in the immediate future. On the UIT side, we expect it be our second-fastest-growing unit in the company. We've got about 50 different UITs, but they're geared more towards transactional-based advisors. ETFs are geared more towards fee-based advisors who are asset allocators.

IU: So ETFs are the fastest-growing part of Claymore's business?

Magoon: Yes, right now they are. In 2006, it was UITs. But we only had about three months of selling ETFs at that point.

The ETF industry seems to be poised for even more growth. We were the third-fastest-growing ETF provider in the U.S. last year in terms of assets. Also, there are only two ETF providers in Canada. Barclays is the other. But we've got around $800 million in assets in Canada. So we're approaching $3 billion in ETF assets in North America. I should also point out that responsibility for our Canadian ETF business is run by other people in Toronto.

IU: Does your expanded role indicate a change in Claymore's overall strategy?

Magoon: No, our strategy remains the same. This move will help our UIT and ETF businesses complement one another better. If anything, it helps streamline operations and build communications within the different units of our growing company.

IU: Do you see ETFs as the future of retail investing?

Magoon: It will be part of the future. But I don't see ETFs taking over the world. They'll be seen more and more as complements to mutual funds.

The biggest growth in ETFs should come from traditional advisors. Right now, independent financial advisors and institutions make up the biggest segments in the marketplace. But traditional advisors working at the wire houses and regional brokerage firms are moving more into ETFs.

At the same time, the continued embrace of retail, mom-and-pop investors will spur more growth in ETFs. I think we've seen the leading-edge retail investors embrace ETFs. But it hasn't filtered all the way down to individual investors yet.

IU: What about the closed-end business?

Magoon: As baby boomers age, they'll seek more income-producing portfolios. That's going to help build popularity in closed-end fund investing. I think that's closed-end funds' sweet spot in coming years since most are geared to pay out attractive monthly distributions, and since many closed-end funds can employ leverage that allows them other opportunities to capture some excess return.

IU: Will Claymore largely stay away from bond ETFs then?

Magoon: No, I'd point to the recent launches of Claymore U.S. Capital Markets Micro-Term Fixed Income ETF (AMEX: ULQ) and Claymore U.S. Capital Markets Bond ETF (AMEX: UBD).

Some people will never buy a closed-end fund, while others won't buy an ETF. And a lot of investors don't want to buy mutual funds because of their expenses. So what's different about Claymore is that we've got product lines for all types of investors. We're more than an ETF company. In fact, we have more assets in closed-end funds and UITs.

Since starting in October 2001, Claymore has been involved in about $18.5 billion of investible assets. Of that, less than one-sixth is related directly to ETFs. And we've only been in that business for a year and a half.

IU: You're also employee-owned, right?

Magoon: Yes, and we think that gives us certain advantages. We continue to maximize the benefits of being privately owned. Hopefully, it has allowed us to be more long term and patient in our focus. We're not judged every quarter. We've been employee-controlled and -owned since day one. And that's something we're very proud of and sets us apart from most of the rest of the industry.