Half of Top Money Managers are Using ETFs

Some 50% of top wealth managers are using ETFs.

That’s the good news for ETF providers; however, ETFs still represent only a small percentage of RIAs’ overall assets under management.

Twenty-five of the Top 50 Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) use ETFs in client portfolios, according to our data. (RIA Database ranked the Top 50 Wealth Managers for 2013 based on assets under management as of March 31.) Of these 25 firms, only six had more than 10% of their client assets in ETFs.

Here’s a closer look at the top five ETF holdings across the Top 50 Wealth Managers of 2013:

1. iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
2. Vanguard Emerging Markets ETF
3. SPDR MidCap 400 ETF
4.  iShares Emerging Markets ETF
5.  State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF

While these holdings were dominant across most of the top wealth managers using ETFs, the remaining holdings were quite varied. The number of ETF holdings ranged from two to 35. With such a variety, wealth managers showed seemingly no brand loyalty, and smaller positions seemed to be dabbling rather than investing.

Large positions across 25 of the top 50 wealth managers also included:

1. WisdomTree Emerging Markets Small Cap ETF
2. PowerShares All Cap Equity ETF
3. Vanguard REIT ETF
4.  State Street SPDR Gold ETF
5. Vanguard Total International Bond ETF

This story originally appeared in Forbes. Julie Cooling is the founder of RIA Database.