The universe of actively managed ETFs keeps growing

Article Excerpt

Exchange-traded funds have traditionally been managed as passive, index-tracking investment vehicles. But that continues to change as more promoters launch actively managed ETFs into the market. Active management is when a fund manager picks stocks on an ongoing basis, rather than aiming to match benchmark indexes. They generally have higher fees than the passively management funds we prefer—with notable exceptions. In the U.S., investors moved $86 billion into actively managed ETFs in 2022, with almost 300 new actively managed funds launched during the year. As well in 2022, several big asset managers, such as JP Morgan, Dimensional Fund Managers, Avantis, and Capital Group, all launched actively managed ETFs. Notably, the money moving into actively managed ETFs isn’t coming from passive ETFs. Instead, most of the money is moving out of conventional mutual funds. In Canada, there were 109 actively managed ETFs launched in 2022, or 72% of all new launches. Actively managed ETFs now make up 47% of the Canadian ETF universe, although…