Why RIA firms are launching their own ETFs — and what it takes to win

The actively managed ETF market has become one of the fastest-growing segments in asset management. Actively managed ETFs attracted $370 billion in net inflows in 2025, capturing more than 25% of total ETF flows despite representing only 8% of total ETF assets, according to data from Morningstar Direct. As of the end of 2025, there were approximately 1,500 actively managed ETFs listed in the United States.

For advisors and asset managers watching the trend, the question has shifted from whether to launch an ETF to how — and which structural advantages justify the effort. Three investment professionals who have recently launched or announced ETFs explain their rationale, the structural tools they used, and the challenge that catches almost everyone off guard.

Tax efficiency and client demand drove an RIA's first ETF launch

Matthew Liebman, founding partner and chief executive officer of Amplius Wealth Advisors, launched the Amplius Active Asset Allocation ETF (ticker: AAAA) in July 2025. The fund is structured as an actively managed, diversified asset allocation vehicle incorporating US large-, mid-, and small-cap equities, international stocks, fixed income, and alternatives, designed to serve as a core portfolio holding.

The structural centerpiece is the Section 351 exchange provision of the US tax code, which allows eligible investors to contribute appreciated securities into the fund in exchange for ETF shares without immediately recognizing capital gains. For clients sitting on concentrated, low-basis positions — a common situation among executives, long-tenured employees, and multi-generational wealth holders — the provision solves a problem that has historically kept significant capital locked in place.

"Client demand was the biggest driver when we launched the ETF. Investors are increasingly looking for tax-efficient diversification solutions, and the ETF wrapper provides meaningful advantages for asset allocation strategies, particularly when combined with tools like Section 351 exchanges that can help investors transition appreciated portfolios more tax efficiently," Liebman said.

Liebman is candid about the challenge that follows a successful launch. Most clients, he notes, care more about outcome than structure — they want portfolios that are diversified, tax-efficient, cost-conscious, and easy to understand. But distribution is the persistent obstacle. With more than 1,500 actively managed ETFs now competing for attention, a sound investment process is necessary but not sufficient. 

A breakaway team is building an ETF to commercialize a proven strategy

Andrew Urbanski, founder, managing director, and chief investment officer of N10° Holdings, plans to list a Section 351 Exchange ETF on the New York Stock Exchange in late 2026.

Urbanski's motivation for the ETF structure mirrors Liebman's on the tax side but diverges significantly in scope and ambition. For Urbanski, the ETF is not primarily a client service tool — it is a statement about where the wealth management industry is heading. His view is that the boundary between wealth management and asset management is actively dissolving, and that managers with verified track records who convert their strategies into listed vehicles gain structural advantages that the traditional advisory or separately managed account model cannot replicate: daily transparency, forced accountability, and access to a distribution ecosystem that a private model never reaches.

"The ETF wrapper lets us be nimble without passing the vast majority of trading tax consequences to shareholders year after year. The 351 structure also allows investors to contribute appreciated securities in exchange for fund shares without immediate capital-gains recognition, solving the concentrated low-basis problem that keeps so much wealth locked in place," Urbanski said.

Urbanski argues that independence — specifically, launching N10° Holdings outside the wirehouse model — is what made the ETF strategy possible. The wirehouse environment, in his view, does not allow advisors to convert a proprietary strategy into a listed vehicle. That constraint, he argues, will increasingly push advisors with genuine investment conviction toward independence. His broader thesis — that actively managed ETFs will not just displace mutual funds and SMAs but also disintermediate parts of the private equity fund complex — reflects a structural conviction about where the industry is heading. 

A deregulation thesis built on a Supreme Court ruling

Hal Lambert, founder and CEO of Point Bridge Capital, built his most recent ETF around a specific legal event rather than a market theme.

The catalyst was the Supreme Court's June 2024 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which overturned the Chevron doctrine — the 1984 precedent that had given federal regulatory agencies broad deference to interpret the statutes they administer. The 6-3 ruling fundamentally shifted the balance of power between courts and regulatory agencies, and Lambert viewed the structural consequences for publicly traded companies as significant and durable. The result was the Free Markets ETF (ticker: FMKT), co-managed with Michael Gayed of Tactical Rotation Management and Todd Stankiewicz of SYKON Asset Management, and launched on the NYSE on June 10, 2025, using Tidal Investments as the white-label ETF platform provider.

"I started thinking about this last summer when the Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine. That was a massive win for companies dealing with big regulatory burdens, and the fact that Trump won will allow this deregulation process to happen even more speedily. The main reason managers want to launch ETFs is to create an easier way to scale and the tax advantages versus mutual funds," Lambert said.

Lambert frames the ETF's competitive challenge with characteristic directness: scale is achievable but it is a long game, and winning assets beyond a firm's existing RIA client base requires patience and a differentiated story that resonates with advisors who have thousands of alternatives to choose from. His observation that the ETF is a better scaling mechanism than a traditional separately managed account or mutual fund reflects the structural advantages that have driven the broader active ETF growth wave — but it does not make the distribution problem easier to solve. 

Taken together, the three launches illustrate the range of motivations driving RIA firms into the ETF space — tax efficiency for concentrated position holders, strategy commercialization through independence, and investment thesis expression tied to structural legal change. What unites all three is a shared recognition that the ETF wrapper offers structural advantages — tax efficiency, daily liquidity, transparency, and scalability — that other vehicles cannot match. What separates the eventual winners from the also-rans, each of them suggests, will not be the quality of the investment process. It will be the patience and differentiation required to earn sustained investor attention in one of the most crowded product landscapes in financial history.