John Pileggi, managing partner of American Independence is a fundster who believes that investors are hankering for a little more independence from style boxes and fluctuating markets.

So, when his firm American Independence, launched the American Independence Risk-Managed Allocation Fund last week, he and his colleagues were preparing for quick expansion in a product area that they believe will provide just that: funds that invest in portfolios of ETFs.

"The beauty of ETFs is that they give you the ability to move across asset classes as markets shift. This is becoming more important in terms of managing risk. With an ETF portfolio, a strategist can access emerging markets, commodities, high yield securities, what have you, and express their views of the market without worrying about economies of scale," Pileggi recently told MFWire.

Pileggi and his colleagues heavily scoured, and continue to scour, experts in this burgeoning space. With the help of experts at BlackRock, with whom they have been collaborating to build capability in this space, American was able to find its first expert, J.A. Forlines, which serves as the subadvisor to the American Independence Risk-Managed Allocation Fund.

His firm is already committed to the category, with four other ETF-portfolio funds already in the SEC pipeline.

One of the big focuses now is banging the drum for this category.

They already have an infrastructure to work with. Pileggi and his colleagues started the firm about six years ago, with a four on intermediary distribution: wirehouses, regionals, the independents and RIAs.

In the six or so years they've been in business, they have generated upward of 100 dealer agreements with firms that fit those categories.

In February, American brought on a wholesaling team, which had previously been with Mutual of Omaha, to help bolster these intermediary operations.

Pileggi believes that ETF portfolios will continue boom because they play into the financial psychology of most investors, i.e. fighting loss.

"RIsk managed portfolios are consistent with how humans really view their portfolios. This is not about scorekeeping, this is how people live," he said. 

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