One of the winningest NFL coaches of all time, George Allen, was famous for saying that “the future is now.”

It's a powerful idea… and it's one by which Mebane Faber clearly abides.

You see, Faber's firm, Cambria Investment Management, launched its brand-new (and powerfully disruptive) Global Asset Allocation ETF (GAA) this week.

And at first glance, it looks like Christmas has come early for retail investors…

The Global Asset Allocation ETF is essentially a diversified portfolio of global asset classes.

It'll invest in about 29 different ETFs that “reflect the global universe of assets consisting of domestic and foreign stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities and currencies.”

But before we get too excited, let's take a closer look to see if this powerful new ETF is all that it's cracked up to be.

There's a Lot to Like

The most obvious benefit of this ETF is its cost.

Cambria says GAA is “the first ETF to have a permanent 0% management fee,” which is an incredible development.

That means Cambria has effectively beaten Schwab to the punch in the race to zero and is offering the world's first diversified portfolio without a management fee. (Of course, it's not entirely free… but GAA's fee is still an impressively low 0.29%, which represents the cost of the underlying ETFs.)

Heck, it's comparable to being the first free robo-advisor – and that could be an incredibly disruptive development. You see, any fee-based robo-advisor – even an exceptionally well-executed one – is going to have a difficult time outperforming GAA over the long term.

This is fantastic news for retail investors who want a broadly diversified, low-cost, set-it-and-forget-it portfolio. In fact, GAA might be the closest thing to a passive global market portfolio that's out there today – even if a few of its underlying funds are actively managed.