2022 has been a rough year for investors as financial markets have declined across the board. No matter what the market performance, investors continue to favor passive index funds over actively managed ones.

Investors continue to favor ETFs, and exchange-traded funds over mutual funds. The vast majority of funds in ETFs are in passive strategies, but there’s an interesting divergence occurring. One of the fastest growing segments in the ETF universe is actively managed ETFs.

This week’s guest is involved in both actively managed mutual funds and ETFs and one of his main responsibilities is identifying best-in-class managers for both. He is Kristof Gleich, President and Chief Investment Officer of Harbor Capital Advisors. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, he was Global Head of Manager Selection at JP Morgan Chase.

Harbor Capital is well known within the investment management industry but not in the general public. Begun as the pension advisory arm of old-line packaging manufacturer, Owens-Illinois, Harbor Capital became independent over 30 years ago. It is known for choosing top-quality independent money managers to run specific mutual funds under the Harbor Capital name.

It currently oversees $55 billion of targeted strategies. It also recently launched a suite of actively managed ETFs, some with unusual strategies which we will discuss.

I began the interview by asking Gleich to take us through the process of choosing money managers to partner with, who have what he calls an “alpha edge”.