The ETF landscape is undergoing a structural shift as financial advisors increasingly pivot from pure passive indexing toward active management. While the ETF Rule of 2019 provided the regulatory spark, current market volatility and the quest for tax efficiency have accelerated active ETF adoption. According to the latest J.P. Morgan Asset Management U.S. Guide to ETFs, active ETFs are no longer a niche satellite play. Rather, they are becoming central pillars of modern portfolio construction.
Key Takeaways:
- Active ETFs captured 32% of all net inflows over the past year, despite representing only 10% of total industry assets.
- Active ETFs can provide significantly higher tax efficiency and lower capital gains distributions than traditional mutual funds.
- Advisors are increasingly replacing passive bond benchmarks with active strategies to better manage duration risk and credit quality.
The Growth Trajectory of Active ETFs
Data from JPMAM highlights a staggering divergence between fund flows and total assets. While actively managed ETFs represent only approximately 10% of total ETF assets under management, they captured a disproportionate 32% of all net inflows over the past year. This trend suggests that advisors are aggressively reallocating capital toward managers who can navigate high-interest-rate environments and idiosyncratic market risks.
The ETF vehicle offers intraday liquidity and typically lower expense ratios compared to traditional mutual funds, but the primary driver remains tax efficiency. As active ETFs can utilize the in-kind creation and redemption process, they significantly minimize capital gains distributions. In fact, JPMAM noted that active ETFs have distributed significantly lower capital gains compared to mutual funds. That applies both in terms of average capital gains relative to net asset value and the percentage of funds paying capital gains each year.
“The active ETF story has evolved alongside a maturing product set that now offers investors meaningful choice. As investors gained access to active managers with verifiable track records using a structure they already trusted, the flows responded accordingly," Jon Maier, chief ETF strategist for J.P. Morgan Asset Management, said. "The growth in active ETF AUM isn’t just keeping pace, it’s accelerating well ahead of where active strategies stood at a similar stage in the category’s early stages. That’s not coincidence. That’s the market telling you something.”
Some of the largest active ETFs by assets include the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income Fund (JEPI), the Dimensional U.S. Core Equity 2 ETF (DFAC), the JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF (JPST), the JPMorgan NASDAQ Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPQ), the Capital Group Dividend Value ETF (CGDV), and the Janus Henderson AAA CLO ETF (JAAA).
Notably, active ETFs seeing the greatest year-to-date flows through April 16 include the iShares Large Cap Core Active ETF (BLCR), the Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF (AVEM), and the Capital Group Dividend Value ETF (CGDV).
Fixed Income Flows Favor Active ETFs
Nowhere is the active trend more visible than in fixed income. As the Federal Reserve maintains a higher-for-longer stance, a challenge for passive bond ETFs has been duration risk. JPMAM’s data shows that active fixed income ETFs have seen accelerated adoption as advisors seek to manage interest rate sensitivity and credit exposure more dynamically.
Advisors are currently utilizing active ultra-short and core-plus strategies to capture yield while mitigating the volatility of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. By shifting away from market-cap-weighted bond indexes — which often give the largest weights to the most indebted issuers — active managers can prioritize credit quality and structural security.
Looking Ahead
The data is clear: The transition from mutual funds to active ETFs is accelerating. As advisors look toward the remainder of 2026 and beyond, the integration of active management within an ETF wrapper appears less like a trend and more like a permanent evolution of the industry.
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