Joanne M. Hill, Ph.D., is the winner of the etf.com Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2023. Currently the chief advisor for research and strategy at Cboe Vest and a board governor for the CFA Institute, Hill has been involved in the financial sector for more than 40 years. She has held previous roles at Brown Brothers Harriman, Goldman Sachs and ProShares.

Hill also is currently an adjunct professor with the College of Charleston School of Business and was previously an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts. In addition to her roles with ETF issuers and service providers, she has made a major impact on the industry as one of the founders behind Women in ETFs, an industry group that supports women working in the field of ETFs, as well as being a former co-president of the group.

There are few participants in the industry that have Hill’s level of knowledge and experience, and she has been instrumental in the growth and expansion of the ETF industry.

The ETF of the Year award goes to the ETF that has done the most to improve investor opportunities and outcomes in 2022 either by providing unique or unprecedented exposures or by lowering costs. The actively managed JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) launched in 2020 and has since accumulate $24.3 billion in assets under management.

Its strategy leverages JPMorgan’s strong fundamental research capabilities to select a portfolio of defensive U.S. stocks, which it combines with an overlay involving out-of-the-money S&P 500 options. The fund was ideal for the rocky markets of 2022, and that year it returned -3.5% versus a decline in the broad U.S. market of nearly 20%. JEPI also pulled in $12.8 billion during the same time period. The fund comes with a net expense ratio of just 0.35%, making it one of the lower-cost actively managed ETFs.

It may not have produced positive returns in 2022, but most funds didn’t. What JEPI offered last year was limited downside plus the benefits of the income generated by its options strategy. Certainly, fixed income didn’t offer much in the way of yield, with interest rates still fairly low. However, JEPI offered its investors a yield of 11.8% last year.

The ETF of the Year award goes to the ETF that has done the most to improve investor opportunities and outcomes in 2022 either by providing unique or unprecedented exposures or by lowering costs. The actively managed JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI) launched in 2020 and has since accumulate $24.3 billion in assets under management.

The Best New ETF award goes to the US Treasury 3 Month Bill ETF (TBIL), a first-of-its-kind product from F/m Investments. The fund launched last August and is now a $714 million fund—not bad for a product from a new issuer.   

F/m entered the ETF market with a unique premise for its U.S. Benchmark Series. The issuer’s products all track indexes from the ICE and Bank of America that represent the on-the-run bond, bill or note for each tenor of Treasury securities, rolling into the newest securities as they become available. By investing in the on-the-run security for a particular tenor, the investor is exposed to the price most similar to what is quoted in the media.  

The strategy offers exposure to Treasury interest rates without requiring management on the part of the investors, whether they are institutional or retail. Alex Morris, chief investment officer of F/m, describes the F/m funds as a way to achieve “very surgical (and) precise” positioning on the yield curve.  

TBIL is the shortest-term product in the lineup and rapidly grew to become the largest fund in the family, probably because many investors were looking to keep their duration short in the face of rising interest rates.

The award for Best New U.S. Equity ETF goes to the Capital Group Growth ETF (CGGR). The actively managed fund primarily targets large cap U.S. growth stocks and was among the first six ETFs that rolled out from Capital Group when it entered the ETF market in February 2022.   

CGGR currently has $1.9 billion in assets under management with broad institutional ownership. It’s one of the largest actively managed U.S. growth ETFs, and with an expense ratio of just 0.39%.   

The fund offers investors lower-cost exposure to a U.S. growth strategy in an ETF wrapper from one of the world’s most respected active managers. Prior to Capital Group’s entry into the ETF space, its strategies were mainly available in mutual fund wrappers. Like the rest of the issuer’s ETFs, CGGR is not a clone of an existing strategy but a unique product. And with six managers listed on its fund page, it reflects Capital Group’s policy of using multiple managers for its funds, with each manager responsible for a different segment of the fund’s portfolio.

The Best New International Global/Equity ETF award goes to the BNY Mellon Global Infrastructure Income ETF (BKGI). With global markets in perilous waters in 2022 and supply chains still suffering from the effects of the pandemic, investing in the companies that keep things running seemed a fairly safe bet to many. Although the category didn’t generate positive returns in 2022, infrastructure funds still saw far better returns than the broader equity markets last year.

On the BNY Mellon fund page for BKGI, the investment argument for the fund notes that infrastructure assets have “inflation links,” which means they can adjust their prices based on an inflation indicator such as the producer price index or consumer price index.

But BKGI has another feature that made it stand out from the crowd in 2022. At a time when investors were very concerned about income, the ETF launched with the goal of providing a 12-month yield of 6% or more. It’s also actively managed, something that can appeal to investors when markets are tumultuous, as it means a fund’s managers can pull assets out of companies that are no longer appealing in order to invest them in companies that seem like better prospects.

The award for Best New U.S. Fixed Income ETF goes to the Schwab Municipal Bond ETF (SCMB). Charles Schwab has a long history in the ETF space of offering broad coverage at rock-bottom prices, and this fund is no different. SCMB has an expense ratio of 0.03%, which is the cheapest in the entire muni ETF category, undercutting even Vanguard’s funds in the space.  

The ETF tracks a very similar index to that tracked by the $31.9 billion iShares National Muni Bond ETF (MUB), the largest muni bond ETF currently trading, but it costs 4 basis points less. SCMB, like MUB, offers broad exposure to the national municipal bond market, an area that was on fire last year regarding flows, as investors sought refuge amid market volatility, with muni bond ETFs pulling in roughly $28 billion during most of 2022. It also is the eighth bond fund to be added to Schwab’s ETF family and fills in one of the last remaining gaps in the issuer’s lineup.  

With the fund’s lowest-in-class expense ratio and the power of the Schwab brand backing it, it’s hard to see investors going wrong with SCMB.

Dimensional Fund Advisors has claimed the prize for ETF Issuer of the Year. The firm entered the ETF market in 2020, and has since created a lineup of 30 actively managed ETFs, with more than $84 billion in combined assets under management.   

Founded in 1981 by David Booth, Rex Sinquefield and Larry Klotz, who all studied under Eugene Fama and Kenneth French, it has a reputation for investing in broad swaths of the market while tilting the exposures of its strategies toward the value, profitability and size factors, something it has continued with the ETFs it markets.   

Essentially, Dimensional’s ETF lineup consists of actively managed broad-market funds that look to highlight factors that have been proven via extensive academic research to outperform the overall market over time. It provides these ETFs at rock-bottom prices that range from 9 to 43 basis points.   

In 2022 alone, Dimensional launched 17 funds, creating even more ways for investors to access its factor-based strategy. The number of new ETFs it debuted last year is on par with veteran names such as iShares and Direxion.

The New ETF Issuer of the Year award is: BondBloxx Investment Management. The firm, founded by a consortium of mostly ETF industry veterans last year, debuted in the first quarter of 2022 with the launch of seven sector junk bond ETFs.

The issuer exclusively focuses on providing targeted exposure to different slices of the fixed income space. In 2022, the issuer launched 19 funds, more than any other issuer, surpassing even iShares and Direxion. In addition to different slices of the high-yield bond space, the list of ETFs it rolled out last year includes a range of target duration U.S. Treasury funds and an emerging market bond fund.

The firm has said it intends to gear its funds toward institutional investors looking to gain fixed income exposure without the potential liquidity issues, although as ETFs, they can be accessed by all types of investors, including retail investors looking for institutional-type access.

In mid-April, the issuer had assets under management of $1.8 billion. Its largest ETF is the BondBloxx Bloomberg Six Month Target Duration US Treasury ETF (XHLF) , with $482.2 million in assets.

It’s not shocking that the New Issuer of the Year should also be the issuer of the winner of the Best New International/Global Fixed Income ETF. The BondBloxx JP Morgan USD Emerging Markets 1-10 Year Bond ETF (XEMD) launched midway through 2022 and has gathered just over $180 million in assets so far.

There’s no shortage of emerging market bond ETFs, but this is the first to specifically target bonds with short- and intermediate-term maturities. XEMD tracks the JP Morgan EMBI Global Diversified Liquid 1-10 Y Maturity Index. Its portfolio holds 355 securities from 54 different countries.

Not only does it offer unique coverage for investors looking for shorter duration than most emerging market bond funds, with an expense ratio of 0.29% it also has a fairly low price relative to other funds in the emerging markets fixed income category. And it offers a 30-day SEC yield of 7.33%, a significant amount at a time when investors are still finding income elusive.

The Dimensional US Small Cap Value ETF (DFSV) has claimed the award for the Best New Active ETF. The fund launched in February 2022 and captures two of the pillars of Dimensional’s core strategy, which targets smaller cap stocks demonstrating strong value characteristics as well as strong profitability. DFSV is benchmarked to the Russell 2000 Value Index.     

If you compare it to one of the largest funds in the space, the passively managed $23.6 billion Vanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR), there’s quite a bit of differentiation. DFSV has a broader portfolio of roughly 980 securities and absolutely no overlap with those of VBR in its top 10 holdings. It’s also outperforming its rival by several basis points year to date.     

With an expense ratio of 0.31%, the fund has nearly $1.4 billion in assets under management. That’s a fairly low cost for an actively managed fund, and even has a lower expense ratio than the passively managed Invesco S&P SmallCap 600 Pure Value ETF (RZV), which charges 0.35%,   

Unsurprisingly for a Dimensional product, the fund has broad institutional ownership among its largest shareholders, including the Alaska Permanent Fund, according to WhaleWisdom.com.

The Best New ESG ETF award winner was also one of the biggest launches in 2022. The iShares Paris-Aligned Climate MSCI USA ETF (PABU) tracks an index of companies seen as well-positioned to participate in the transition to a lower-carbon economy and aligning with the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.    

Not only does the MSCI USA Climate Paris Aligned Benchmark Extended Select Index screen out U.S. companies traditionally eschewed by ESG strategies, such as those involved in alcohol, weapons, fossil fuels or major controversies, it homes in on companies within its universe that have lower greenhouse gas intensity. In fact, a document from iShares notes that the companies in its portfolio have the goal of reducing their greenhouse gas intensity by half, year over year, while its broader selection universe has an average goal of a 10% reduction.    

PABU recently crossed $1 billion in assets under management, despite the backlash against ESG strategies that began last year. However, the increasing severity of weather events has likely been instrumental in keeping assets flowing into the fund.    

And with an expense ratio of just 0.10%, investors are getting low-cost exposure to what many consider the most important element of ESG investing.

The winner of the Best New Smart Beta or Factor ETF is the Invesco NASDAQ Future Gen 200 ETF (QQQS). The fund offers exposure to 200 Nasdaq-listed stocks ranking below the ones included in the 100-stock Nasdaq-100 Index and Nasdaq Next Generation Index in size but falling within the components of the Nasdaq Composite Index. Companies are screened to include those with the most valuable patent portfolios relative to their size, and are equal-weighted within QQQS’ index. It provides exposure to the small cap segment of the market.   

In focusing on the value of a company’s intellectual property, the ETF’s methodology has the potential to avoid some of the risks associated with investing in the small cap segment. These are companies that have already accomplished something by filing for patents and are likely still in the early stages of monetizing those patents. This implies a certain amount of growth potential, which is generally what investors are looking for with small cap companies.    

Investors can access this innovation-tilted ETF at an expense ratio of 0.20%.

The Best Thematic ETF of the Year award goes to the Engine No. 1 Transform Climate ETF (NETZ). The fund is actively managed and invests in U.S. companies that are both driving and benefiting from the transition to a lower carbon economy, though its primary focus is on companies in carbon-intensive industries that are ahead of their peers. The fund has the most exposure to industries such as transportation, energy and agriculture.    

The premise behind NETZ is that because only 200 companies account for more than 80% of greenhouse gases produced by corporations, net zero can’t be achieved without their support or participation. So it takes the somewhat contrarian approach of investing in companies that, though they may have been or are among the worst offenders, are making strides toward the goal of net zero.    

With a high-conviction portfolio of just 26 holdings as of mid-April, NETZ has nearly $110 million in assets under management, a little more than a year after its February 2022 launch. The portfolio includes such names as Airbus SE, Deere and Co. and Exxon Mobil Corp.   

S&P Dow Jones Indices claims the award for Index Provider of the Year. The firm’s benchmarks underlie more than 380 ETFs, or 12% of all U.S.-listed ETFs, more than any other index provider. A total of $2.3 trillion in assets, essentially one-third of all U.S.-listed ETF assets, is invested in those ETFs, the largest of which is the $379.7 billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY).    

The index provider offers a full range of plain vanilla, cap-weighted indexes, including two of the best-known indexes in the world, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index. However, in more recent years, S&P DJI has become known for its factor indexes, on which it issues regular reports.   

It also offers extensive research via its website, including blogs, research reports and videos. In particular, its S&P Indices Vs. Active report, which has been published for 20 years, has been instrumental in supporting the argument for index-based investing rather than active management. Over the years, it has expanded from a U.S.-focused report covering 12 fund categories to encompass nine geographies and more than 100 fund categories.

The award for the New ETF Ticker of the Year goes to the Roundhill Cannabis ETF (WEED). Irreverent and perhaps a bit too on-the-nose, it can evoke a giggle from anyone viewing it on their page or screen. And certainly, in just four letters it lets the investor know exactly what they’re allocating their money to.    

Given that WEED was one of the last marijuana ETFs to hit the market, it entered a crowded space, but the argument could be made that its managers, since it is actively managed, have seen where the pitfalls are in investing in cannabis via the older and more established ETFs covering the industry.    

At a year old, WEED still has only about $1.5 million in assets under management, but there are myriad reasons for that. In 2022, marijuana ETFs were among the worst performers. This was largely because long-anticipated regulatory reform never materialized during the year, and still hasn’t in 2023. Despite being legalized to one extent or another in more than 20 states, reform at the federal level seems like it could be necessary for the industry to truly thrive.