With exchange traded funds (ETFs), retail investors are now able to access areas of the markets that used to be reserved to institutional investors, but that is quickly changing as one brokerage sees individual investors overtaking registered investment advisors (RIAs) in the ETF game.
In the last six months, Charles Schwab, for the first time tallied more money flowing from individual investors in ETFs than from RIAs, writes Jessica Toonkel for Investment News. Normally, the ratio is around 50-50 between advisors and retail investors.
Peter Crawford, senior vice president of investment management services at Schwab, noted “now that investors have a better sense of what ETFs are, they are more comfortable investing in them”
“Ninety percent of advisor clients use ETFs, compared to 17% of Schwab’s individual investor clients,” adds Crawford.” Additionally, 25% of advisors surveyed in July by Schawb plan on using more ETFs in the near future. Around 40% of Schwab’s ETFs are currently in RIA portfolios.
Schwab has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a mid-cap and real estate investment trust (REIT) fund.
For more information exchange traded funds, visit our ETF 101 category.
Max Chen contributed to this article.
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