Russell Investments Enters ETF Market With Five New Multi-Manager Products

Russell Investments announced today that it has launched five ETFs that give U.S. investors the ability to leverage its open-architecture, multi-manager portfolios in an active ETF. The initial lineup of funds incorporates the following active strategies: U.S. small cap equity, international developed markets equity, global equity, emerging markets equity, and global infrastructure.

"Investors have ambitious financial goals, and we believe they should have access to every possible advantage in pursuing them,” said Kate El-Hillow, president and chief investment officer, Russell Investments. "We believe these ETFs are a game-changer as building blocks for advisors and investors looking to maximize exposure to specialist active management in key global asset classes without the complication of researching managers and constructing portfolios themselves. We designed these ETFs to reflect our disciplined, multi-manager investment process—delivered in a way that’s accessible for individual investors."

"We are excited to use the ETF structure to deliver our best investment ideas to our advisor and investor partners,” said Brad Jung, head of advisor and intermediary solutions for North America at Russell Investments. “Our open-architecture approach brings together leading managers and diverse investment strategies into an ETF wrapper.  We’re making it even easier for advisors to deliver sophisticated, active management while spending more time on what truly sets them apart—building stronger client relationships."

“Russell Investments has been researching managers for more than five decades,” said Edward Rosenberg, head of ETF product at Russell Investments. “Strong manager research and a unique time-tested approach to blending multiple investments into one portfolio are a powerful combination.”

The five new funds began trading on the NASDAQ in May.

Multi-manager portfolio innovation

Russell Investments continues to advance its long-standing multi-manager approach, tapping its deep global research network to identify and combine leading investment strategies. Through a disciplined process of evaluating investment managers around the world—their people, processes, and philosophy, the firm aims to build portfolios that are well-diversified and positioned for long-term success.

This approach provides investors with access to a broad range of specialist managers and investment styles, helping to mitigate concentration risk and incorporate views from high-conviction managers. Russell Investments’ global scale supports broad research access and deep manager due diligence, which inform the design of these ETFs. The firm’s commitment to rigorous oversight is reflected in its more than 1,800 annual manager meetings, supporting ongoing due diligence and performance monitoring.

Proprietary portfolio construction approach

Russell Investments ETFs seek to provide complementary security selection strategies within a single investment. The firm starts by blending managers with diverse investment styles. It then optimizes the portfolio to retain those insights while working to constrain portfolio turnover and manage transaction costs, among other objectives. The result is a structure designed to drive consistent, risk-adjusted performance.