Longevity is, increasingly, a big business. Advances in healthcare technology and AI have prompted both prominent medical professionals and individual investors to imagine how people might live longer, healthier lives. Though still fairly small overall, the longevity industry is expected to nearly triple in size from 2025 to 2035.
Longevity is still very much a niche play for investors, and there are few ways to get involved directly outside of positions in a handful of individual biotech firms. Investors taking a longer view of the industry—or those unsure of how to make a specific bet on one or more single companies, given the nascent nature of the longevity space—might instead opt for an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The ETFs below provide varying degrees of specificity with regard to longevity companies, ranging from the broadest to the narrowest.
XBI: Broad Biotech Approach
The SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSEARCA: XBI) is a general biotech ETF with a basket of close to 150 different U.S. biotech companies across the market capitalization spectrum.
The fund is popular among investors, with about $8 billion in assets under management and a one-month average trading volume of close to 8.5 million.
Biotech companies tend to carry a decent amount of risk, given that most firms in this space are working toward developing commercially viable products. As such, the bulk of XBI's portfolio is smaller firms in the mid-cap and small-cap ranges.
It also weights its positions fairly equally, ensuring that no single holding represents more than about 1.8% of the portfolio. This may help to distribute this risk, although it might also prevent XBI from benefiting from major rallies in individual names as well.
XBI is not exactly a longevity-focused fund, but all the companies in this basket are in the healthcare space and are developing new therapies and products to cure and address various diseases.
Its return of about 5.5% year-to-date (YTD) is somewhat sluggish compared to the broader market. However, looking to the last 12 months, the fund has performed much better with more than 50% in returns. A modest dividend yield of 0.34% also helps to justify the 0.35% expense ratio.
BMED: Health Innovation for Cutting Edge Technology
Taking an active approach, the iShares Health Innovation Active ETF (NYSEARCA: BMED) does not track an index, but rather seeks to compile a manager-selected list of innovative companies from across the healthcare sector.
As an actively managed fund, investors can expect BMED to carry a higher annual fee, and in this case, the expense ratio is 0.55%.
BMED's portfolio is quite narrow compared to XBI, with roughly 50 positions of various sizes. Thelargest holdings in the fund's basket come in above 5% each, so this ETF is not nearly as diversified as many other offerings in the space.
BMED is also not specifically linked to the longevity industry, although it does carry a number of biotech names and others focused on this space.
So far in 2026, BMED's managers have significantly underperformed the market. Fortunately, though, as an actively managed fund this ETF is not subject to quarterly rebalancings but can instead modify its portfolio at any time.
AGNG: Focused on Enhancing and Elongating the Lives of Seniors
The Global X Aging Population ETF (NASDAQ: AGNG) is perhaps the best ETF for a singular focus on longevity.
Taking a market-cap-weighted approach to portfolio construction, this fund tracks an index of companies aiming to enhance and elongate the lives of senior citizens.
This yields a basket of about 90 companies in the medical device, life sciences, biotech, and pharmaceuticals industries, and with a broader geographic focus on developed markets.
One trade-off for the specificity of AGNG's theme is a smaller asset base: the fund has $81 million in managed assets and similarly low trading volumes, so liquidity is a factor that investors should keep in mind. It also carries a higher expense ratio than some investors may be comfortable with, at 0.50%.
Like BMED, the strategy has not yet paid off in 2026 returns, so investors might prefer to think of AGNG as a long-term bet on the industry. Its dividend payment does help to sweeten the offer, although the yield of 0.89% is likely not enough to make investors consider AGNG as a dividend play per se.
The article "3 Longevity ETFs to Buy and Hold (and Hold)" first appeared on MarketBeat.
