A study released Monday finds that while ETFs are growing within national broker-dealer wraps such as those at institutions like Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, UBS and Wells Fargo, growth has been slow and more or less tracks the growth rate in mutual funds in wraps since mid-2009.
By the end of 2010, ETFs made up 25% of retail fund (mutual fund + ETF) assets in wrap, or fee-based advisory, programs at national broker-dealers. That was up from 22% at the end of 2008.
The study from Strategic Insight, a report called “How Financial Advisors Use ETFs,” says that in part the reason for this is that some of the heaviest ETF users in such wrap programs drifted back to mutual funds as the stock market rose.