JPMorgan Shuttering Pair of Active ETFs

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the investment giant with $118.5 billion across 58 ETFs, is closing a pair of active funds after they failed to see significant inflows in two years of trading.  

The JPMorgan ActiveBuilders U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (JUSA) will stop trading Sept. 13, and the JPMorgan ActiveBuilders International Equity ETF (JIDA) will do so Oct. 10. The funds will liquidate on Sep. 21 and Oct. 18, respectively.  

Despite the growing popularity of active management across sectors, these two funds failed to gain traction, neither of them attracting investor interest or rising above about $30 million under management. Neither meaningfully beat its benchmark either, which is the main draw for active ETF investors.  

On the other end of the spectrum, JPMorgan has the largest actively managed fund, the JPMorgan Equity Premium Income ETF (JEPI), which has almost $30 billion in under management. The company declined to comment.  

Sunsetting Active ETFs 

The sunsetting active ETFs launched in July 2021 as part of JPMorgan’s push to expand into active management.  

JUSA invests primarily in equity securities of “large, well-established companies,” according to the prospectus for the fund,  managed by Davis Jiang and Tim Snyder. Its benchmark index is the S&P 500. Since launching, the ETF has mirrored the S&P 500. Year to date, the fund is up 17% while the S&P 500 is up about 15%, but JUSA has only $28 million in assets and has drawn no inflows since it launched. 

JIDA invests in global equities, and seeks to beat the index it is tracking, the MSCI EAFE Index. It has gained about 13% over the past year, about on par with its benchmark. The fund, led by Nick Horne, Philippa Clough and Bruno Baisch, has only seen about $9 million in inflows since launching. 

JPMorgan is still expanding into active ETFs even as these two small funds stumbled. In March, the firm launched the JPMorgan Active Small Cap Value ETF (JPSV) and the JPMorgan Active China ETF (JCHI). 

Contact Lucy Brewster at [email protected]