Advisors Asset Management earns an inaugural Below Average Parent rating, considering its focus on distribution for a product lineup that hasn’t demonstrated its merit for investors.
AAM operates as an asset manager, broker-dealer, distributor, and unit investment trust sponsor. UIT distribution is the firm’s largest and fastest-growing business, though UITs have broadly declined in popularity since the 1990s, as the fee-heavy vehicle can be difficult to justify relative to lower-cost funds.
AAM launched its first mutual fund in 2006 and has been building out a suite of exchange-traded funds more recently. It doesn’t manage these portfolios in-house; rather, it partners with asset managers like Insight Investments and Sawgrass Asset Management to subadvise the strategies. It has continued to launch funds even as some of its existing offerings struggle to scale. Three of its nine ETFs remain below USD 10 million in assets. Overall, the firm’s 11 funds total just USD 1.6 billion in assets as of August 2026. The firm also liquidated two passive ETFs in 2024 that never reached scale.
The firm has solid financial backing since Canadian conglomerate Sun Life Financial acquired a 51% stake through its asset-management platform Sun Life Capital Management in 2023. The arrangement provides AAM with substantial resources in exchange for becoming the US retail distribution arm for SLC and its alternative-investment affiliates. In 2024, this partnership launched its first retail offering: AAM SLC Low Duration Income ETF.
United States