SUMMARY PROSPECTUS | February 28, 2020

Virtus Real Asset Income Etf
(Ticker: Vrai)

a series of
ETFIS SERIES TRUST I

The Virtus Real Asset Income ETF (the “Fund) is an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”).
Shares of
the Fund are listed on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (the “Exchange”) and trade at market prices.
The market price for
the Fund’s shares may be different from its net asset value per share.

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s prospectus, shareholder reports, statement of additional information (SAI), and other information about the Fund online at www.virtusetfs.com.

You can also get this information at no cost by contacting your financial intermediary (such as a broker-dealer or bank), by calling the Fund at (888) 383-0553, or by sending an e-mail to: virtus.investment.partners@virtus.com.

The Fund’s prospectus and SAI, both dated February 28, 2020 (as each may be amended or supplemented), are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

Beginning on January 1, 2021, as permitted by regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, paper copies of each Fund’s shareholder reports will no longer be sent by mail, unless you specifically request paper copies of the reports from your financial intermediary, such as a broker-dealer or bank. Instead, the reports will be made available on a website, and you will be notified by mail each time a report is posted and provided with a website link to access the report.

You may elect at any time to receive not only shareholder reports but also other communications such as prospectuses from the Fund electronically, or you alternatively may elect to receive all future shareholder reports in paper free of charge. Please contact your financial intermediary to make your request and to determine whether an election made with the financial intermediary will apply to all funds in which you own shares through that intermediary.

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INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

Virtus Real Asset Income ETF (the “Fund”) seeks investment results that correspond, before fees and expenses, to the price and yield performance of the Indxx Real Asset Income Index (the “Underlying Index”).

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund (“Shares”). Most investors will incur customary brokerage commissions when buying or selling Shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in the table or example set forth below.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment):

None

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment):

Management Fee1

0.55%

Other Expenses

0.00%

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses

0.55%

 

(1)The management fee is structured as a “unified fee,” out of which the Fund’s adviser pays all of the ordinary operating expenses of the Fund, except for the following expenses, each of which is paid by the Fund: the Fund’s management fee; payments under any 12b-1 plan; taxes and other governmental fees; brokerage fees, commissions and other transaction expenses; interest and other costs of borrowing; litigation or arbitration expenses; acquired fund fees and expenses; and extraordinary or other non-routine expenses of the Fund. 

Example. This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. This example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you pay when purchasing or selling Shares of the Fund.

The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain at current levels. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

1 Year

3 Years

5 Years

10 Years

$56

$176

$307

$689

PORTFOLIO TURNOVER

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities or other instruments (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual Fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the period from February 7, 2019 (commencement of operations) through October 31, 2019, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 15% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY

Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest not less than 80% of its assets in component securities of the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is designed to track the performance of U.S.-listed “Real Asset” companies, as defined by Indxx, LLC (“Indxx”), the index provider of the Underlying Index. Indxx is not affiliated with the Fund or the Fund’s investment adviser, Virtus ETF Advisers LLC. The Underlying Index includes common stock, real estate investment trusts (“REITs”), master limited partnerships (“MLPs”), American depositary receipts (“ADRs”) and global depositary receipts (“GDRs”).

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Indxx considers Real Asset companies to be those that are classified under certain real estate-related industries, such as real estate development or REITs (“Real Estate”); natural resources-related industries, such as oil, coal, precious metals, steel, agricultural commodities, or forest products (“Natural Resources”); or infrastructure-related industries, such as electric utilities, telecommunications, transportation, or MLPs (“Infrastructure”); each as defined by FactSet Research Systems Inc. (“FactSet”).

To be eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index, securities must (i) be U.S.-listed, (ii) have a market capitalization of at least U.S. $250 million, (iii) be classified within one of the Real Estate, Natural Resources or Infrastructure industries by FactSet, (iv) have six-month average daily turnover greater than or equal to U.S. $500,000, (v) have traded for at least 90% of the total trading days over the last six months, and (vi) have paid dividends during the trailing 12 months prior to selection as well as the trailing 12 months three years prior to selection. The top 30 securities by three-year dividend growth rate from each of the Real Estate, Natural Resources and Infrastructure industries will be selected for inclusion in the Underlying Index, for a total of 90 securities.

Securities within the portfolio are equally weighted at each rebalance and reconstitution. The total weight of MLPs is capped at 20% of the overall portfolio (and the total number of MLPs is limited to 15) at each rebalance, and any excess weight over 20% is proportionally distributed among other Infrastructure securities.

The Underlying Index is reconstituted annually and rebalanced quarterly. The Fund is reconstituted and rebalanced in accordance with the Underlying Index.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest not less than 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in Real Asset companies.

The Fund will not seek to “beat” the performance of the Underlying Index and will not seek temporary defensive measures when markets decline or appear overvalued. Instead, the Fund uses a “passive” or indexing investment approach to try to approximate the investment performance of the Underlying Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicates the Underlying Index; however, there may be times when the Fund does not hold every security in the Underlying Index. The Adviser expects that, over time, the correlation between the Fund’s performance before fees and expenses and that of the Underlying Index will be 95% or better. A figure of 100% would indicate perfect correlation.

The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., holds more than 25% of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries approximately to the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it can invest a greater percentage of its assets in any one issuer than a diversified fund can.

PRINCIPAL RISKS

An investment in the Fund is subject to investment risks; therefore, you may lose money by investing in the Fund. There can be no assurance that the Fund will be successful in meeting its investment objective. Generally, the Fund will be subject to the following principal risks:

Equity Risk. The prices of equity securities rise and fall daily. These price movements may result from factors affecting individual issuers, industries or the stock market as a whole. In addition, equity markets tend to move in cycles which may cause stock prices to fall over a short and extended periods of time. In a declining stock market, stock prices for all companies (including those in the Fund’s portfolio) may decline, regardless of their long-term prospects. Common stock is subordinated to preferred stocks, bonds and other debt instruments in a company’s capital structure, in terms of priority to corporate income, and therefore will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of such issuers.

Real Estate Companies/REITs Risk. Investments in REITs and other securities of Real Estate companies subject the Fund to, among other things, risks similar to those of direct investments in real estate and the real estate industry in general. These include risks related to general and local economic conditions, possible lack of availability of financing and changes in interest rates or property values. REITs are entities that either own properties or make construction or mortgage loans, and also may include operating or finance companies. The Fund is subject to the risk that the value

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of stocks of REITs will decline because of adverse developments affecting the real estate industry and real property values. Such a decline could be precipitated by, among other things, general economic decline, deterioration in the real estate rental market, declines in real estate property demand, changes in interest rates, declines in the availability of real estate financing, increases in borrower defaults, overbuilding, or other developments that reduce credit and cash positions of REITs and REIT operators on a local, regional or national level. REITs may also be adversely affected by poor management, failure to quality as a REIT under the Code, environmental problems, property tax increases or changes in federal, state or local regulations. In addition to the above, Mortgage REITs are subject to the following risks: credit risk of the borrowers under the underlying mortgages, insufficient insurance, risks of investments in subprime mortgages, foreclosure risk, interest rate risk, risks of borrowing and leverage, and prepayment risk.

Natural Resources Companies Risk. Investments in securities of Natural Resources companies enhances the Fund’s exposure to adverse economic, regulatory, political, legal, and other conditions or events affecting the issuers of such securities. Natural Resources companies are subject to certain risks, including legislative or regulatory changes, adverse market conditions and increased competition. Performance of such companies may be affected by factors including, among others, fluctuations in prices of natural resources, and supply and demand of natural resources fuels, energy conservation, the success of exploration projects, local and international politics, and events occurring in nature. For instance, natural events (such as earthquakes, hurricanes or fires in prime natural resources areas) and political events (such as government instability or military confrontations) can affect the value of companies involved in natural resources-related business activities. Other risks may include liabilities for environmental damage and general civil liabilities, depletion of resources, and mandated expenditures for safety and pollution control.

Infrastructure Companies Risk. Investments in securities of Infrastructure companies enhances the Fund’s exposure to adverse economic, regulatory, political, legal, and other conditions or events affecting the issuers of such securities. Infrastructure-related businesses are subject to a variety of factors that may adversely affect their business or operations including high interest costs in connection with capital construction programs, costs associated with environmental and other regulations, the effects of an economic slowdown and surplus capacity, increased competition, uncertainties concerning availability of fuel at reasonable prices, the effects of energy conservation policies and other factors. Additionally, infrastructure-related entities may be subject to regulation by various governmental authorities and may also be affected by governmental regulation of rates charged to customers, service interruption and/or legal challenges due to environmental, operational or other conditions or events and the imposition of special tariffs and changes in tax laws, regulatory policies and accounting standards. There is also the risk that corruption may negatively affect publicly-funded infrastructure projects, especially in foreign markets, resulting in work stoppage, delays and cost overruns.

Small and Micro Capitalization Companies Risk. Investing in the securities of small and micro capitalization companies generally involves greater risk (and substantially greater risk for micro capitalization companies) than investing in larger, more established companies. The securities of small and micro capitalization companies usually have more limited marketability and therefore may be more volatile and less liquid than securities of larger, more established companies or the market averages in general. Because small and micro capitalization companies normally have fewer shares outstanding than larger companies, it may be more difficult to buy or sell significant amounts of their shares without an unfavorable impact on prevailing prices. Small and micro capitalization companies often have limited product lines, markets, or financial resources and lack management depth, making them more susceptible to market pressures. Small and micro capitalization companies are typically subject to greater changes in earnings and business prospects than larger, more established companies. Small and micro capitalization companies may be particularly affected by interest rate increases, as they may find it more difficult to borrow money to continue or expand operations, or may have difficulty in repaying any loans which are floating rate. The foregoing risks are generally increased for smaller capitalization companies as compared to companies with larger capitalizations.

Depositary Receipts. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates will affect the value of depositary receipts, such as ADRs and GDRs, and, therefore, may affect the value of the Fund’s portfolio. There is no guarantee that a financial institution will continue to sponsor a depositary receipt, or that the depositary receipt will continue to trade on an exchange, either of which could adversely affect the liquidity, availability and pricing of the depositary receipt.

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Issuer Risk. The performance of the Fund depends on the performance of the issuers of the individual securities in which Fund invests. Poor performance by any issuer may cause the value of its securities, and the value of the Fund’s Shares, to decline.

Concentration Risk. A fund concentrated in an industry or sector is likely to present more risks than a fund that is broadly diversified over several industries or sectors. Compared to the broad market, an individual industry or sector may be more strongly affected by changes in the economic climate, broad market shifts, moves in a particular dominant stock or regulatory changes.

Non-Diversified Fund Risk. The Fund is considered non-diversified and can invest a greater portion of assets in securities of individual issuers than a diversified fund. As a result, changes in the market value of a single investment could cause greater fluctuations in share price than would occur in a diversified fund.

MLP Risk. Investments in securities of MLPs involve risks that differ from investments in common stock including risks related to limited control and limited rights to vote on matters affecting the MLP, risks related to potential conflicts of interest between the MLP and the MLP’s general partner and cash flow risks. MLP common units and other equity securities can be affected by macroeconomic and other factors affecting the stock market in general, expectations of interest rates, investor sentiment towards MLPs or the energy infrastructure sector, changes in a particular issuer’s financial condition or unfavorable or unanticipated poor performance of a particular issuer (in the case of MLPs, generally measured in terms of distributable cash flow). Prices of common units of individual MLPs and other equity securities also can be affected by fundamentals unique to the partnership or company, including earnings power and coverage ratios.

MLP Tax Risk. MLPs taxed as partnerships, subject to the application of certain partnership audit rules, generally do not pay U.S. federal income tax at the partnership level. Rather, each partner is allocated a share of the MLP’s income, gains, losses, deductions and expenses. A change in current tax law, or a change in the underlying business mix of a given MLP, could result in an MLP being treated as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which would result in such MLP being required to pay U.S. federal income tax on its taxable income. The classification of an MLP as a corporation for U.S. federal income tax purposes would have the effect of reducing the amount of cash available for distribution by the MLP. Thus, if any of the MLPs owned by the Fund were treated as corporations for U.S. federal income tax purposes, it could result in a reduction in the value of your investment in the Fund and lower income.

Market Risk. Market risk refers to the risk that the value of securities in the Fund’s portfolio may decline due to daily fluctuations in the securities markets that are generally beyond the Fund’s control, including the quality of the Fund’s investments, economic conditions, adverse investor sentiment, poor management decisions, lower demand for a company’s goods or services, pandemics, epidemics, natural or environmental disasters, and general equity market conditions. In a declining market, the prices for all securities (including those in the Fund’s portfolio) may decline, regardless of their long-term prospects. Security values tend to move in cycles, with periods when securities markets generally rise and periods when they generally decline. During a “flash crash,” the market prices of the Fund’s Shares may decline suddenly and significantly. Such a decline may not reflect the performance of the portfolio securities held by the Fund. Flash crashes may cause Authorized Participants and other market makers to limit or cease trading in the Fund’s Shares for temporary or longer periods. Shareholders could suffer significant losses to the extent that they sell Shares at these temporarily low market prices.

Passive Strategy/Index Risk. The Fund is managed with a passive investment strategy that seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index. This differs from an actively managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund may hold constituent securities of the Underlying Index regardless of the current or projected performance of a specific security or the relevant sector as a whole. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s returns to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy. The Fund will seek to track the Underlying Index in all market conditions, including during adverse market conditions when other funds may seek to take temporary defensive measures (such as investing significantly in cash or cash equivalents). Accordingly, unless the Underlying Index allocates significant portions of its assets to cash and cash equivalents during times of adverse market or economic conditions, the Fund may be subject to a higher level of market risk during such times than other funds.

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Index Tracking Risk. While the Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Underlying Index closely (i.e., to achieve a high degree of correlation with the Underlying Index), it will not seek to beat the performance of the Underlying Index. Further, the Fund’s return may not match or achieve a high degree of correlation with the returns of the Underlying Index due to operating expenses, transaction costs, cash flows, regulatory requirements and operational inefficiencies.

Calculation Methodology. The Underlying Index relies on various sources of information to assess the criteria of issuers included in the Underlying Index, including information that may be based on assumptions and estimates. The Fund, the Adviser, and Indxx cannot offer assurances that the Underlying Index’s calculation methodology or sources of information will provide an accurate assessment of included issuers.

Authorized Participant Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as Authorized Participants, none of which are obligated to engage in creation or redemption transactions. To the extent these Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to process creation and/or redemption orders, in either of these cases, Shares of the Fund may trade like closed-end fund shares at a discount to net asset value (“NAV”) and possibly face delisting.

Costs of Buying or Selling Shares. Investors buying or selling Shares in the secondary market will pay brokerage commissions or other charges imposed by brokers as determined by those brokers. Brokerage commissions are often a fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors seeking to buy or sell relatively small amounts of Shares. In addition, secondary market investors will also incur the cost of the difference between the price that an investor is willing to pay for Shares (the “bid” price) and the price at which an investor is willing to sell Shares (the “ask” price). This difference in bid and ask prices is often referred to as the “spread” or “bid/ask spread.” The bid/ask spread varies over time for Shares based on trading volume and market liquidity, and is generally lower if the Fund’s Shares have more trading volume and market liquidity and higher if the Fund’s Shares have little trading volume and market liquidity. Further, increased market volatility may cause increased bid/ask spreads. Due to the costs of buying or selling Shares, including bid/ask spreads, frequent trading of Shares may significantly reduce investment results and an investment in Shares may not be advisable for investors who anticipate regularly making small investments.

Fluctuation of NAV; Unit Premiums and DiscountsThe NAV of the Fund’s Shares will generally fluctuate with changes in the market value of the Fund’s securities holdings. The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the Fund’s NAV and supply and demand of Shares on the Exchange or any other exchange on which Shares are traded. It cannot be predicted whether Shares will trade below, at or above their NAV. Price differences may be due, in large part, to the fact that supply and demand forces at work in the secondary trading market for Shares will be closely related to, but not identical to, the same forces influencing the prices of the securities of the Fund trading individually or in the aggregate at any point in time. The market prices of Shares may deviate significantly from the NAV of the Shares during periods of market volatility. While the creation/redemption feature is designed to make it likely that Shares normally will trade close to the Fund’s NAV, disruptions to creations and redemptions and/or market volatility may result in trading prices that differ significantly from the Fund’s NAV. If an investor purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV of the Shares or sells at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV of the Shares, then the investor may sustain losses that are in addition to any losses caused by a decrease in NAV. Additionally, to the extent that the underlying securities of the Fund trade on an exchange that is closed when the Exchange is open, there are likely to be deviations between current pricing of an underlying security and stale security pricing (i.e., the last quote from the foreign exchange market), resulting in premiums or discounts to NAV that are greater than those experienced by other ETFs.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The Fund is new and therefore does not have a performance history for a full calendar year. Performance information for the Fund will be provided once it has annual returns for a full calendar year.

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MANAGEMENT OF THE FUND

Investment Adviser

Virtus ETF Advisers LLC is the Fund’s investment adviser (the “Adviser”). The Adviser is responsible for managing the Fund’s investments, subject to the oversight and supervision of the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) of ETFis Series Trust I (the “Trust”).

Portfolio Managers

The Fund’s portfolio managers are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio. The Fund’s portfolio management team is comprised of Seth Kadushin and Matthew B. Brown, each of whom is a Portfolio Manager with the Adviser and has served as portfolio manager of the Fund since the inception of its operations in February 2019.

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

Unlike conventional investment companies, the Fund generally issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis, at NAV, in blocks of 50,000 Shares or whole multiples thereof (“Creation Units”). The Fund’s Creation Units may be issued and redeemed only by certain large institutions, referred to as “Authorized Participants”, that enter into agreements with the Fund’s principal underwriter. Retail investors may acquire and sell Shares only on the Exchange through a broker-dealer. Shares of the Fund will trade on the Exchange at market price rather than NAV. As such, Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).

TAX INFORMATION

The Fund’s distributions generally are taxed as ordinary income, capital gains or some combination of both, unless you are investing through a tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an IRA, in which case your distributions may be taxed as ordinary income when withdrawn from such arrangement.

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Adviser may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

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