American Century’s Head of ETF Solutions to Depart

American Century is losing its head of ETF solutions, Rene Casis, who joined the firm just before it launched its first exchange-traded fund in 2018.

In regulatory filings late last week, the company disclosed that Casis will soon no longer be a portfolio manager on 11 ETFs. An American Century spokesperson confirmed in an email that Casis will leave the company in about three weeks to “pursue another opportunity” and that a search is underway for a successor. “His last day managing portfolios is June 11,” the spokesperson said. “He remains with the firm until June 20 to assist as needed.”

An Active Presence

With about $60 billion in assets among its 47 ETFs, American Century is not one of the biggest players in the industry, though still among the top 20 ETF issuers broadly. But the company has made a niche in actively managed ETFs, with a focus on semitransparent ETFs, which disclose their holdings quarterly, rather than daily, and show a proxy basket of securities to give investors a rough idea about the portfolios. Through its Avantis Investors subsidiary, American Century is among the four biggest active ETF issuers by assets.

Casis, who has been with the firm as it built out its active and semitransparent ETF business, is a portfolio manager on several products with that structure. While six of the 11 ETFs he is on have two portfolio managers, others have larger teams. 

The largest ETFs that Casis helps manage include:

• US Quality Growth ETF — $1.5 billion, team of two managers
• Quality Diversified International ETF — $326 million, two managers
• Focused Dynamic Growth ETF — $284 million, four managers
• Focused Large Cap Value ETF — $253 million, five managers

Moving On: All but one of the nine $1-billion-plus ETFs in the company’s line are managed by, and branded under, its Avantis Investors subsidiary. Casis is not part of that unit. “Generally we have a constructive view of the ETF business under American Century,” said Hyunmin Kim, an analyst on Morningstar’s multi-asset strategies research team. “Avantis is a bright spot.”