Allspring Global Investments, an asset manager with $570 billion in assets under advisement, will start offering active ETFs. Currently, the firm manages $423 billion in fixed-income and money market assets, $135 billion in equity assets and $12 billion in multi-assets.
“We believe the active ETF industry will continue to evolve, and we are taking a thoughtful approach, evaluating expansion opportunities across strategies managed by our investment teams with strong track records and deep investment experience,” company executives said in a statement.
Allspring declined to comment further.
Rick Genoni, Allspring’s global head of product development and innovation, will lead its efforts to expand into the ETF space. Prior to joining Allspring in 2022, Genoni worked as head of global ETF strategy and strategic relationships at Franklin Templeton and as head of ETF product management at Legg Mason. Allspring also plans to recruit executives to lead its ETF capital markets and ETF operations.
In addition, this week Allspring filed a request with the SEC for exemptive relief to offer a dual-share mutual fund/ETF asset class. The company’s portfolio includes a high number of mutual funds, ranging from Allspring Disciplined U.S. Core Inst, which has delivered a year-to-date return of 18.24%, to Allspring Managed Acct CoreBuilder CP, with a year-to-date return of 0.77%, according to Morningstar data.
In filing for exemptive relief to offer dual-share mutual funds/ETFs, the company joins a growing list of asset managers interested in pursuing that strategy that up to now has been one exclusively available to Vanguard, which patented the strategy. The patent has now expired and asset managers that have filed requests similar to Allspring include PGIM, Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Dimensional Fund Advisors, among others. Asset managers believe offering dual-share mutual funds/ETFs would give them access to new groups of clients while providing scale and tax efficiencies.