Wider adoption of ETFs among fee-based financial advisors is helping drive the industry’s growth but also fueling concerns it’s getting more difficult for newer entrants to compete.
The so-called Big Three of BlackRock (iShares), State Street and Vanguard control the U.S. ETF market to such an extent “that rivals face large hurdles if they want to gain ground in passive investing, research from the fundtracker Morningstar suggests,” according to the Financial Times.
Together, the trio controls more than 80% market share. [Smaller, New ETF Providers Try to Chip Away at ‘Big Three’]
“Advisors say let’s do ETFs and index trackers because they are lower cost and allow us to get out of an investment quickly,” said Greggory Warren, a senior stock analyst with Morningstar, in the report.
After the Big Three, Invesco’s ETF business PowerShares is the next-largest provider at 5% of the market. [PowerShares ETF Business Helping Power Invesco]