Allspring Active ETFs
Combining a rich history of expertise with solutions for today's investor
Allspring's active investment capabilities meet the structural advantages of an ETF—a powerful combination.
Reimagine the path to your investment goals
Empower your financial future with active ETF strategies designed to elevate the investor experience.
CAPITAL APPRECIATION: Our active equity ETFs leverage time-tested, high-conviction strategies designed to deliver long-term capital appreciation through disciplined stock selection.
INCOME GENERATION: Allspring’s fixed income ETFs aim to deliver enhanced income and total return through broadening market access, exploiting market inefficiencies, and leveraging skilled active decision-making.
RISK MANAGEMENT: With enhanced active risk management, differentiated strategies, and diversification, Allspring’s active ETFs may help strengthen portfolio resilience and risk-adjusted performance.
Our portfolio managers share their thoughts on what makes our latest ETF offerings stand out.
Transcript
Nick Venditti: In a world full of municipal bonds—and let's be honest, that's a pretty wonderful world—how do you choose the best way to invest? I'm Nick Venditti, head of Municipal Fixed Income at Allspring Global Investments, and I'm excited to introduce something that might make that choice a little easier: the Allspring Ultra Short Muni ETF (exchange-traded fund), or AUSM. AUSM focuses on delivering current income through investments in short duration, high-credit-quality municipal securities in the tax-efficient, liquid, and cost-effective structure of an ETF. The fund provides investors access to the very front end of the yield curve, seeking to deliver the compelling combination of tax-free income potential with low interest rate risk. We take an active approach with AUSM, leveraging our institutional expertise to provide investors a differentiated investment strategy with characteristics that are intentionally unique to its category. So, if you're ready to put your cash to work but aren't sure where to start, here's why AUSM should be in consideration. The ETF is based on our popular Municipal Ultra Short Plus strategy that we offer in a variety of vehicle types already. AUSM delivers an ETF version with the same strategy, which has many key advantages. First is our team. The Municipal Fixed Income team is uniquely structured to promote independent thinking and partnership. Instead of the more traditional muni asset management model where there's a firm divide between credit analysts and portfolio managers, our PMs, our research analysts, and our traders all work together in seeking to capture maximum alpha, or excess returns relative to the benchmark, through exploiting and capitalizing on market inefficiencies. Second is our collaborative approach, which allows us to work together across asset classes and teams. We frequently reach across the aisle and gain intelligence on corporate bonds from taxable fixed income analysts, which helps us gain a holistic perspective on the fixed income markets. This allows us to make investment decisions that aren't made in solely a muni world vacuum. We also place a strong emphasis on risk management, working in close partnership with our Investment Analytics team to assess market risk on a daily basis. Finally, we have both the willingness and the ability to move down in credit. With this flexibility, we can look to add potential yield and value while still remaining firm and uncompromising in our investment process, which is highlighted by a disciplined relative value orientation and timely credit research. We understand market and interest rate volatility and the critical need for capital stability, especially in shorter-duration investments. That's why our active ETF, AUSM, is built by our experts to prioritize not just performance, but the bigger picture of actively seeking the right bond at the right price at the right time. We believe our approach offers investors a truly differentiated strategy for accessing this unique part of the muni market. If you're ready to get active with putting cash to work or just want to dial down duration in munis, consider investing with our Municipal Fixed Income team’s new ETF. We think it's pretty awesome.
Transcript
John Campbell: We're thrilled to share the launch of the Allspring SMID Core ETF (exchange-traded fund). ASCE brings our time-tested active SMID core strategy to the ETF market, offering a new and effective way to invest in a select group of core, small, and mid-size U.S. companies. The fund is actively managed by our Systematic Core Equity team, which averages more than 22 years of industry experience. With ASCE, you get an ETF that leverages the same time-tested research expertise and disciplined management approach that's been used in our separate accounts and retail SMAs (separately managed accounts) for more than two decades, now available with tax and cost-efficiency, daily transparency, and the intraday liquidity of an ETF. So, what sets ASCE apart from other products in the space? There are three key features that make it a standout choice for investors. First, we blend quantitative and fundamental approaches. Many funds use one method or the other. We use both. Our quantitative models identify high-quality companies with strong earnings momentum while our fundamental analysis dives deeper. By focusing on management, product positioning, and risks, we can incorporate difficult-to-quantify information and build conviction in every stock we select. Second, we offer a true active strategy. Unlike passive ETFs that seek to mirror an index, we're active managers with high conviction. ASCE focuses on approximately 50 carefully chosen stocks diversified across major economic sectors. We also use a disciplined buy-and-sell approach where we aim to capture alpha while building a portfolio that offers similar earnings growth potential as the benchmark but at better valuations. Our final differentiator is our proprietary multifactor alpha model. This model is built to uniquely identify outperformers. It combines three essential factors to rank stocks. First, by quality. We target strong, well-run businesses with healthy balance sheets, steady sales, and expanding profit margins. Second, by value. We seek out undervalued gems using trailing forward and intrinsic valuations, uncovering potential where others might not see it. And finally, momentum. We identify companies reporting positive earnings surprises, sales growth, and rising market sentiment. This approach gives us the flexibility to adapt to changing market environments. So, if moving down the cap spectrum with active expertise and high conviction fits your investment goals, consider ASCE. It might be the right move for you.
Transcript
Neville Javeri: At Allspring, we have a rich history of active investing. For decades, we have developed and refined a wide array of investment strategies aimed at delivering superior outcomes for investors. This spirit continues with the recent launch of our first ETFs (exchange-traded funds), and I'm pleased to share that we brought one of our more popular core active equity strategies to the ETF market: the Allspring LT Large Core ETF. ALRG provides access to an established active strategy that we've managed for years and is now available with all the potential advantages of an ETF. ALRG is built on the foundation of consistency that we've developed over the years at Empiric LT. The fund is managed by the same team and uses the same investment process as our SMAs (separately managed accounts) and institutional separate accounts, which have been around for more than a decade and have combined assets of more than $11 billion. The fund is managed by our Empiric LT Equity team, which averages more than 21 years of industry experience. Now, we're offering greater choice to our clients—delivering this strategy in a new way through a tax-efficient, cost-effective, transparent, and liquid investment vehicle. So, why ALRG? There are four key differentiators that make ALRG and our investment approach stand out. The first is what we look for in companies. We focus on fundamentally superior companies with long-term growth potential, unique and resilient competitive advantages, outsized market share, and high barriers to entry. In other words, we're looking for those exceptional companies that will be able to grow consistently over time. This leads me to our second key differentiator, which is our long-term focus. Every decision we make is based on our long-term investment thesis. We typically hold high-quality companies over a full business cycle or more. We believe that over the long term, stock returns are driven by strong company fundamentals, which ultimately can drive outperformance. The third is a high-conviction approach. It's difficult to pass the test for entry to our portfolios. ALRG targets about 40 to 60 high-quality stocks that we identify as being mispriced relative to their true long-term growth potential. So, you're getting our best ideas, not index exposure. Our last differentiator is our proprietary decision-making tool called the Total Return Monitor. This is our valuation framework—a powerful portfolio construction tool that takes the results of our fundamental research and ranks every single company according to its expected return. We think this framework brings a truly consistent and repeatable approach to managing our portfolios. If you're seeking a long-term solution for your U.S. large-cap core equity exposure, then the Allspring LT Large Core ETF may be right for you.
Why active ETFs?
Take a deeper dive into active ETFs
Insight
Are Active ETFs Right for You?Learn about active exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and their potential benefits, characteristics, and comparisons with other investment vehicles like mutual funds and separately managed accounts (SMAs).
Allspring’s head of ETFs, Rick Genoni, highlights the structural benefits and tax efficiency of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and how these attributes are reshaping investment outcomes.
Molly Landes, Allspring’s head of ETF Capital Markets, shares key strategies for trading exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
George Bory, chief investment strategist for Allspring Fixed Income, explains how active investing in fixed income can offer key advantages over passive investing by prioritizing investor needs, accounting for opportunity costs, and exploiting structural inefficiencies within the bond market.
Molly Landes, Allspring’s head of ETF Capital Markets, reviews the nuances of exchange-traded fund (ETF) liquidity—beyond visible trading volume—to make smarter trading decisions.
Featured insights
Insight
Ask More From Your CoreGetting active with core fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
Insight
Bonds Be Nimble, Bonds Be QuickTwo of Allspring’s fixed income teams provide examples of how they have exploited pricing inefficiencies through thorough credit research and careful portfolio management.
Janet Rilling, head of Allspring’s Plus Fixed Income Team, was named by Morningstar again in 2023 as one of the top female portfolio managers in the U.S.
Many bond investors have been awaiting the perfect “Goldilocks” moment to take advantage of yields before they fall. Based on data covering the past 30 years, we believe currently attractive yields are worth considering now.
It is possible that an active trading market for ETF shares will not develop, which may hurt your ability to buy or sell shares, particularly in times of market stress. Shares may trade at a premium or discount to their net asset value (NAV) in the secondary market. These variations may be greater when markets are volatile or subject to unusual conditions. There can be no assurance that active trading markets for the shares will develop or be maintained by market makers or authorized participants. Shares of the ETFs are not redeemable with the ETF other than in creation unit aggregations. Instead, investors must buy or sell the ETF shares in the secondary market at market price (not NAV) through a broker-dealer. In doing so, the investor may incur brokerage commissions and may pay more than NAV when buying and may receive less than NAV when selling. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Stock values fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies and general market and economic conditions. Bond values fluctuate in response to the financial condition of individual issuers, general market and economic conditions, and changes in interest rates. Changes in market conditions and government policies may lead to periods of heightened volatility in the bond market and reduced liquidity for certain bonds held by the fund. In general, when interest rates rise, bond values fall and investors may lose principal value. Interest rate changes and their impact on the fund and its share price can be sudden and unpredictable. High yield securities and junk bonds have a greater risk of default and tend to be more volatile than higher-rated securities with similar maturities. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities may decline in value and become less liquid when defaults on the underlying mortgages or assets occur and may become volatile in periods of rising interest rates. Foreign investments are especially volatile and can rise or fall dramatically due to differences in the political and economic conditions of the host country. These risks are generally intensified in emerging markets. Smaller-company stocks tend to be more volatile and less liquid than those of larger companies. Municipal securities risk includes the ability of the issuer to repay the obligation, the possibility of future tax and legislative changes, and other factors that may adversely affect the liquidity and value of the municipal securities in which the fund invests. A portion of the fund’s income may be subject to federal, state, and/or local income taxes or the alternative minimum tax. Any capital gains distributions may be taxable. Consult the fund’s prospectus for additional information on these and other risks.
Allspring ETFs are not available for distribution outside of the United States.