Active ETFs have 'arrived in full force,' researcher says—but consider the costs before buying

Cnbc · 🇺🇸 public United States · Jun 09, 2026 · 949 words · By Ryan Ermey

headphones Listen to the eFinder podcast briefing

Ready to play

Daily briefing

What to know about Active ETFs have 'arrived in full force,' researcher says—but consider the costs before buying

Last week, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, colloquially known by its ticker symbol, VOO, became the first exchange-traded fund to surpass $1 trillion in assets.

Claims checked 10

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center88%

Right12%

8 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Last week, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, colloquially known by its ticker symbol, VOO, became the first exchange-traded fund to surpass $1 trillion in assets.

Why it matters

It was a milestone moment for what has become the standard-bearer for an industry that has trended toward cheaper, passive strategies.

Common ground

VOO, like many of the funds that anchor investor portfolios, merely aims to track the performance of a major market index, rather than trying to outperform it.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Active ETFs have 'arrived in full force,' researcher says—but consider the costs before buying?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that The average annual fee among all new ETFs: 0.71%?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/09/active-etfs-have-arrived-in-full-force-researche…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 4

help Insufficient Evidence 2

check_circle Corroborated 2

verified Verified By Reference 1

verified Verified 1

help

Claim 1: “The average annual fee among all new ETFs: 0.71%”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for this claim.

info

Claim 2: “As of year-end 2025, the average passive stock ETF came with an annual fee of 0.14%, compared with a 0.44% charge among active stock ETFs, according to Morningstar”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results for this claim only returned dictionary definitions for the word 'according' and provided no data from Morningstar regarding fees for 2025.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — ACCORDING definition: 1. present participle of accord 2. to treat someone specially, usually by showing respect: . Learn more.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/accordin…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — 5 days ago · The meaning of ACCORD is to grant or give especially as appropriate, due, or earned. How to use accord in a sentence. Did you know? Synonym Discussion of Accord.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/according

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — 2 days ago · Synonyms for ACCORDING: corresponding, coinciding, conforming, agreeing, fitting, consisting, checking, answering; Antonyms of ACCORDING: differing (from ...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/according

verified

Claim 3: “Over the past two calendar years, and so far in 2026, some 8 in 10 new ETF launches were active funds, according to Morningstar”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

While one search result mentions active ETFs are booming according to Morningstar, there is no specific data in the provided evidence confirming that 8 in 10 new launches in the years leading to 2026 were active funds.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — BlackRock, Inc. is an American multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is by far the world…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackRock

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — Ronald Stephen Baron (born 1943) is an American mutual fund manager and the founder of Baron Capital, a New York City-based investment management firm. Baron Capital manages the Baron Funds and had ap…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_S._Baron

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Vanguard Group, Inc. is an American registered investment adviser founded on May 1, 1975, and based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with approximately $12 trillion in global assets under management as o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vanguard_Group

+ 3 more evidence sources

check_circle

Claim 4: “the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, colloquially known by its ticker symbol, VOO, became the first exchange-traded fund to surpass $1 trillion in assets”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent web sources, including Reuters and other financial news reports from June 2026, confirm that the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) became the first ETF to surpass $1 trillion in assets.

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The S&P SmallCap 600 (S&P 600) stock market index, maintained by S&P Dow Jones Indices, comprises the common stocks of 600 small-cap, mostly American, companies. Although called the "S&P 600", the ind…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_S&P_600_companies

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The S&P 500 (Standard and Poor's 500) is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 leading companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly fol…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S&P_500

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, commonly known by its ticker symbol SPY (NYSE Arca: SPY), is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that seeks to track, before expenses, the price and yield performance of the S&P …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPDR_S&P_500_ETF_Trust

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 5: “That marked the 16th year in a row that more than half of active managers who use the S&P as a benchmark lost to the index”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence discusses SPIVA reports and the general trend of active managers underperforming, but does not explicitly confirm the '16th year in a row' statistic.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Dec 25, 2024 ... S&P publishes reports comparing the S&P 500 (and other indices) to active managers SP SPIVA. For year end 2023, 40% of active fund managers beat ...
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bogleheads/comments/1hm2zk6/the_lik…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Samuelson's wish for an S&P 500 index fund was granted, more rapidly than he expected, as ... For example, if a manager benchmarked against the S&P 500 tilts ...
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/documents/research/researc…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — more than double in a year. This asymmetry is problematic for money managers ... ” where a positive number signifies managers performing above the index benchmark ...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253217931_Why_Activ…

check_circle

Claim 6: “last year, 79% of large-company U.S. stock fund managers failed to keep up with the S&P 500, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices”

CORROBORATED

Two independent web search results confirm that according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, 79% of large-company U.S. stock fund managers underperformed the S&P 500 in the most recent year (2025).

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The DAX (Deutscher Aktienindex (German stock index); German pronunciation: [daks] ) is a stock market index consisting of the 40 major German blue chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchang…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAX

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) launched in 1999, are a family of indices evaluating the sustainability performance of thousands of companies trading publicly, operated under a strategic p…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dow_Jones_Sustainability_Indic…

menu_book

wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Dow Jones Industrial Average, an American stock index composed of 30 large companies, has changed its components 60 times since its inception, on May 26, 1896. As this is a historical listing, th…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_components_of_the_D…

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 7: “Of the $866 billion in investor cash that flowed into U.S. ETFs through early June this year, $313 billion — 36% — went into active strategies, according to investment research firm TMX VettaFi”

SINGLE SOURCE

The specific figures ($866 billion total, $313 billion/36% active) are reported in one specific web search result dated June 9, 2026, but not corroborated by other independent sources in the provided evidence.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Jun 9, 2026 ... Of the $866 billion in investor cash that flowed into U.S. ETFs through early June this year, $313 billion — 36% — went into active ...
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/09/active-etfs-have-arrived-in-…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Dec 4, 2024 ... We operate through three business segments in Canada: Personal and Commercial. Banking, Wealth Management and Financial. Markets. A fourth ...
https://www.nbc.ca/content/dam/bnc/a-propos-de-nous/relation…

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Dec 4, 2024 ... ... into our U.S.. AML program. ... Since its launch in Q2 this year, we've seen a 38 per cent increase in new and existing clients using the platform ...
https://www.td.com/content/dam/tdcom/canada/about-td/pdf/qua…

verified

Claim 8: “the fund is inexpensive to manage, charging shareholders just 0.03% of assets per year”

VERIFIED

Web search results explicitly state that the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) has an expense ratio of 0.03%.

menu_book

+ 3 more evidence sources

info

Claim 9: “the average asset-weighted expense ratio for ETFs bumped slightly higher in the last year, according to FactSet”

SINGLE SOURCE

The search results for this claim only returned dictionary definitions for the word 'according' and provided no financial data from FactSet regarding expense ratios.

travel_explore

help

Claim 10: “Of the ETFs launched this year through the end of May, more than 3 in 5 carried annual expenses of at least 0.5%, and more than a fifth charged 1% or more, according to Morningstar”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found after searching for this claim.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.