Media coverage about active ETFs has seemingly been non-stop over the past several months.  In this Issue Brief, we strip out the hype and impartially consider the pros and cons of active ETFs and the opportunities for investment managers. Both ETFs and active ETFs are designed to offer liquidity, lower expenses, transparency, trading flexibility, and significant tax advantages over mutual funds. Active ETFs offer the features of ETFs combined with an investment process that provides the opportunity for above-average returns (where average is defined as matching the performance of the index/benchmark). Active ETFs are an evolution in the distribution of an investment manager’s acumen. Nevertheless, our evaluation suggests that active ETFs are generally a packaging story. Absent a distinguishing strategy combined with effective distribution, there is no compelling urgency for investment managers to build active ETFs in the near term.