A new study conducted by Greenwich Associates and sponsored by BlackRock (NYSE: BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, indicates institutional usage of exchange traded funds is growing and will continue to do so. BlackRock is the parent company of iShares, the world’s largest asset manager.
The study shows 46% of institutional ETF investors surveyed allocate 10% or more of total assets to ETFs with 47% saying they expect to boost ETF usage over the next year.
“About 30% of institutional ETF investors report ETF allocations in the 10% to 25% range. RIAs, who are the largest users of ETFs by assets, have the largest ETF allocations with 41% of RIAs investing more than 25% of total assets in ETFs,” according to the study.
Institutional investors are also increasing that strategic use of ETFs with the Greenwich study showing “63%of all survey respondents describe their ETF usage as strategic, up from 58% in 2013. This is remarkably different than in 2010, when approximately 20% of institutional ETF investors said they employed ETFs to implement strategic or long-term investment decisions.”
Nearly half of survey participants report holding ETFs for two years or longer, up from 36% last year. “Among institutional investor types, 66% of pension plans’ strategic usage is up sharply from 47% in 2013,” notes the study.