A former ETF-focused options trader is rolling out the first fund from her New York City startup, with help from a Sooner State ETF-in-a-box shop.

Sofia Leon Massie LionShares LLC CEO, Founder

On Wednesday (September 3), Sofia Massie, founder and CEO of LionShares, unveiled the launch of the LionShares U.S. Equity Total Return ETF (TOT on the NYSE Arca). Brooklyn-based LionShares LLC serves as investment advisor to the new fund, while Oklahoma City-based Exchange Traded Concepts LLC (ETC) [profile] serves as subadvisor.

TOT's inception day was Wednesday, and the new ETF comes with an expense ratio of 7 basis points (which bakes in an 18bps fee waiver promised through September 1, 2026). As of yesterday (September 4), the fund had about $5.323 million in AUM.

The PM team for TOT includes four ETC portfolio managers:

Todd Alberico;

Brian Cooper;

Andrew Serowik; and

Gabriel Tan.

TOT is designed as an ETF-of-ETFs. The idea, as Massie explains it, is to provide investors with broad exposure to the U.S. equity market, while trying to avoid paying dividends to minimize tax drag.

"Many investors prefer to reinvest dividends as soon as possible," Massie states. "What they truly seek is exposure to the total return of the market."

Before founding LionShares in early 2025, Massie worked with a key market maker ally to the ETF industry: she spent more than two years with Jane Street, where she served as a quantitative trader. She is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumna who did research in the MIT Distributed Robotics Lab and interned with ExxonMobil and Indigo Technologies.

TOT is an actively managed series of Advisor Managed Portfolios. The new ETF's other service providers include:

Cohen & Company, Ltd. as independent accounting firm;

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP as counsel;

ACA Foreside's Quasar Distributors, LLC as distributor;

U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, LLC (dba U.S. Bank Global Fund Services) as administrator, dividend disbursing agent, and transfer agent; and

U.S. Bank, N.A. as custodian.

 

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