March 14, 2008 at 6:00 am by Tom Lydon
A recent study found that affluent investors like their mutual funds, but they’re also fond of alternative investments, too.
Research conducted by The Phoenix Company reported that 81% of affluent respondents said they owned at least one mutual fund outside of a retirement plan. And 74% said they hold an alternative investment, reports Rebecca Moore for Plan Adviser.
Real estate was the most popular alternative investment at 45%. ETFs came in at 30%, hedge funds around 25% and private equity funds at 20%.
The study also found that regardless of their investment category, affluent investors are almost evenly split about their plans: 49% of mutual fund owners and 52% of alternative investment owners indicated that they’ll invest at least the same amount in the coming year. The other half said they’d invest less.
March 16th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Why exactly are ETF’s considered “alternative” I wonder? In my perfect investing world they would be the mainstream.
March 17th, 2008 at 7:55 am
ETFs are probably considered “alternative” (for now, at least) because they’re not yet a household name. As fast as the industry is growing, the assets in them are still dwarfed by the assets in mutual funds.
I think ETFs will no longer be considered “alternative” when the name of them can be used in a story without having to be followed by a definition and explanation of how they work, the way mutual funds are talked about now!
I agree, though: in a perfect world, they’d be mainstream already.