Exchange-traded funds just became a little more active, but more important, the fee-and-cost sandbag on actively managed products just became a little lighter.

On Friday, Eaton Vance rolled out the first of its NextShares products. The funds, called exchange-traded managed funds, are actively managed and priced at net asset value like traditional mutual funds, but have low fees and are traded throughout the day like ETFs.

The first fund, the Eaton Vance Stock NextShares, trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol EVSTC. Its launch was muted, however, by limited distribution and an extended regulatory review.

Stephen Clarke, president of NextShares Solutions, the Eaton Vance subsidiary responsible for the product structure, says there are a number of other NextShares funds in the pipeline. But they aren’t alone, he adds.

“Eaton Vance was just the first. We have 11 other companies that have expressed an intent to bring NextShares to the market,” Clarke says.”To date, our efforts have been working at the company level with broker-dealer home offices, exchanges, market makers and fund companies. Now that there’s a product available, the conversation can expand to include advisors and investors. This is exciting because it’s early and NextShares are new, but there will a lot more to talk about moving forward.”

The first NextShares fund is a version of the master-feeder Eaton Vance Stock Fund managed by Charles Gaffney, and it is now available on Foliofn’s investment platforms. Clarke said Eaton Vance and NextShares worked extensively with Foliofn to develop the technology and other operational infrastructure to launch the new products.

Foliofn is the first broker-dealer to distribute the new products, rolling them out to the 400 advisor firms on its Folio Institutional and consumers on its Folio Investment platforms. “We’re unique because we already owned all of the technology to make this happen,” says Greg VIgrass, Folio’s president. “Our technology people like the challenge and opportunity that comes with doing something new like this, and we’re pleased to have been the first.”

NextShares' exchange-traded market funds marry the active management of many mutual funds with the low fees and tax benefits of ETFs. Like most ETFs, NextShares do not charge distribution fees, service fees or sales loads.

NextShares can be traded throughout the day, but will clear at the fund’s net asset value determined at 4 p.m. each trading day. The funds are not required to disclose their holdings on a daily basis.

“There’s absolutely demand for what NextShares seeks to do, which is to lower the expenses, improve the performance and improve the tax efficiency of actively managed funds,” Clarke says. ”ETFs are popular because they tend to have lower expenses, which tend to lead to better performance. Coupling those attributes with active strategies is a win for investors and for fund managers.”

The fund structure allows active managers the confidentiality to trade within their portfolios free from the eyes of copycats and front-runners while providing the transparency many regulators and market makers prefer. NextShares will generally not be required to hold cash reserves to meet shareholders’ liquidity needs.

At the end of 2014, Eaton Vance received exemptive relief, the first hurdle to release NextShares, from the SEC. Throughout 2015, the SEC rejected several other attempts to create an actively managed ETF-like product, until December, when the regulator approved the NextShares structure and 18 proposed Eaton Vance funds.

“My guess is that these products will develop and continue to evolve rapidly,” says Vigrass. “We’re visioning more entrants into this space, and there’s a lot of interest primarily from the RIA tactical and strategic portfolio business.”

Clarke says that additional broker-dealer relationships and fund launches will be announced in the near future, with Hartford Funds, Victory Capital and Gabelli Funds among the dozen-or-so managers lining up to launch NextShares products when the regulatory hurdles are cleared.

“For the most part, we were waiting for Eaton Vance to get registration statements approved so other participants have a template to use when filing their own registration documents,” Clarke says. “Those firms are now engaged in the business of working on their own statements and filings with the SEC.”

Other distributors are expected to come online as they meet regulatory and technological requirements to offer the products.

“We’re working with Envestnet to bring portfolio models to the market that would include NextShares,” Clarke says. “Their inclusion is contingent on a new product that is still in the formative stage, and we’re in discussions with other firms to bring NextShares to market.”