John Hancock’s CEO Explains the Explosive Growth of Active ETFs
While it may not be grabbing as much headline attention these days, the ongoing popularity and adoption of actively managed strategies and active ETFs in particular is undeniable. Kristie Feinberg, CFA, President & CEO, John Hancock Investment Management, shared a bit of her time at Future Proof Citywide with Sumit Roy, Senior ETF Analyst at ETF.com, to chat the active proliferation, impacts of artificial intelligence, and more.
Roy: Kristie, so great to see you. How are you doing?
Feinberg: I’m doing wonderful. It’s great to be here.
Roy: Absolutely. So let’s talk active ETFs. This has been such a popular area in the ETF industry. They went from like nothing to now like a major part of the ETF industry. Why do you think they’ve been taking off over the past couple of years?
Feinberg: Yeah I mean that is exactly what we’re seeing. We’re seeing tremendous growth. In fact, active ETFs have been taking a disproportionate share. And I believe they’re almost up to 40% of the industry flows now. And this is a couple of different things that are coming into that.
One we’ve had some time where the ETF, active ETF platforms have started to mature. So, you’re starting to see more options. You’re starting to see more scale, longer track records. And really the education around where and how they fit within the portfolios. So as advisors become more comfortable with them and as investors are constantly looking for diversification and ways in which to achieve their outcomes, ETFs play a really important part of that. And that’s driving and fueling the growth. It’s coming from investor demand, both from the individual and retail side, as well as the institutional.
Roy: Well, active is one “A” word, the other “A” word that everyone’s talking about is AI, artificial intelligence. So let’s talk about that. There’s been a lot of discussion about how AI is going to disrupt industries, everything from software to data analytics companies. How do you see AI impacting the asset management industry?
Feinberg: Yeah, you can’t go a day without hearing or seeing something about AI. And it is going to dramatically change, not just the industries that we work in, but just our daily lives. And the asset management industry will participate in that as well. You know, I think from our standpoint, our industry has been built on trust and outcomes for our clients and staying extremely focused on that.
So, while we are continuously looking at how it’s going to come into the industry, it needs to be done in a very thoughtful way, and ensuring what we’re doing ultimately meets the needs of the customers. I think that you’ll see that the firms that win in those things are going to be the firms that stay very focused on the client needs and how AI can be achieved, or used to achieve better outcomes.
Roy: And do you think AI is going to have a dramatic impact on the industry, or is it going to be more incremental?
Feinberg: I think over the long term it’s definitely going to be dramatic. But as we continue to roll it out, again, it needs to be in a very thoughtful and responsible way. So with that, it will be very cautious in how we use AI to ensure that it’s actually delivering what we’re looking forward to deliver, both from the efficiency standpoint as well as insights. It’s never going to replace the human being or the human decision making, but it will help enhance it. And ensuring that ultimately it’s going to help us get to a better place for our clients is really going to be what drives the rate of adoption.
Roy: And finally, I want to touch on ETFs. John Hancock, you have a suite of several ETFs, a couple of dozen ETFs, I think. Can you tell us a little bit about the suite and what we can expect from you over the next year?
Feinberg: Yes. I mean this is an area of significant growth for us. We were seeing all time highs in our ETF flows. Our platform now is over $12 billion. And in fact we just crossed ten years since our launch of our first ETF. So we have about 18 ETFs out in market. And what we’re going to continue to do is lean into this space heavily, both from the active management side—from our in-house capabilities, which is about 600 professionals worldwide—as well as our unique multi-manager, to be able to bring capabilities to market through this wrapper.
Not only will we continue to invest in the platform, but also within our distribution and our capabilities around servicing the advisor. Whether that’s from an education standpoint, we have a whole team of portfolio ETF specialists. We have portfolio construction teams that help figure out how to embed in the most efficient way into the portfolios for advisors to be able to continue to invest in ETFs as they transform and go into models.
Roy: Kristie, it’s been an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for your time today.
Feinberg: Thank you for having me.
DISCLOSURE
John Hancock is not affiliated with ETF.com or Sumit Roy.
The opinions expressed are those of the presenter at the time of recording and are subject to change as market and other conditions warrant. The subadvisors’ affiliates, employees, and clients may hold or trade the securities mentioned, if any, in this commentary. The information is based on sources believed to be reliable, but does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of John Hancock Investment Management. No forecasts are guaranteed. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
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Source: Morningstar. As of 2/28/26, the Manulife John Hancock Investments ETF platform has $12.591 billion in AUM.
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JHS-906582-2026-03-25 04/26