MutualFundWire.com: Bill Miller Bets On a SoCal Startup's 1st ETF

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Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Bill Miller Bets On a SoCal Startup's 1st ETF

A retired star value portfolio manager in the Mid-Atlantic is betting on the first fund from a new Southern California startup.

Joseph Richard Shaposhnik
Rainwater Equity, LLC
Founder, CEO

Last month, Joseph Shaposhnik, founder and CEO of Rainwater Equity, LLC, unveiled the launch of the Rainwater Equity ETF (RW on the NYSE Arca, Inc.), and he also revealed that Bill Miller (former chief of Miller Value Partners and Legg Mason Capital Management) has made a "cornerstone investment" in the new ETF. Havertown, Pennsylvania-based Empowered Funds, LLC (dba EA Advisers and ETF Architect) serves as RW's investment advisor, while Los Angeles-based Rainwater Equity serves as sponsor and subadvisor.

RW's inception date was June 17, and the fund comes with an expense ratio of 125 basis points. The fund now has $12.3 million in AUM.*

Shaposhnik, who also serves as managing member and principal owner of Rainwater Equity, is the sole PM of RW. He describes the fund's strategy as investing in a "concentrated portfolio of recurring revenue businesses." He contrasts his approach to running the new ETF with the prevalence of funds "hugging their indexes, owning hundreds of unpredictable businesses across every sector, and generating high tax bills for their investors — all while delivering mediocre, after-tax results."

"We invest in dominant businesses that generate repeat purchases from loyal customers — software providers, waste haulers, auto parts manufacturers, and stock exchanges," Shaposhnik states. "These companies tend to grow free cash flow more predictably and experience fewer negative surprises. We hold them for the long term."

RW is an actively managed, non-diversified series of the EA Series Trust (fka the Alpha Architect ETF Trust). The new fund's other service providers include:

Practus, LLP as counsel;

ACA Foreside's Quasar Distributors, LLC as distributor;

Tait, Weller & Baker LLP as counsel;

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

U.S. Bank National Association as custodian and securities lending agent.

Shaposhnik founded Rainwater Equity (fka Shaposhnik Capital Management LLC) last fall. He previously spent more than 13 years with TCW, where he founded the New America business unit and co-PMed the TCW Compounders ETF (fka the TCW New America Premier Equities Fund). Earlier, he did equity research with Fidelity. He is an alumnus of UCLA's Anderson School of Management and of the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

*As of today, i.e. July 8, 2025.

Printed from: MFWire.com/story.asp?s=70126

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