Interest in specific investment outcomes will drive institutional exchange-traded fund (ETF) adoption, according to the July issue of The Cerulli Edge – US monthly Product Trends.
One ETF sponsor told Cerulli that institutional use of so-called smart-beta or strategic beta strategies will be a key driver of institutional asset management mandates over the next three years and that exposure will likely come via ETFs.
Strategist firms that take the approach of acting as a tactical manager and working with institutions to show various ways that they can incorporate ETFs into their asset allocation models, may prove to be more successful in the channel.
One ETF strategist with whom Cerulli spoke stated that an area of focus they are finding beneficial is smaller-sized corporate defined benefit plans that may not be large enough for a separate account structure.
Both mutual fund and ETF assets continue to grow, at respective rates of 3.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent from May to June 2014. Taxable bond mutual funds have the highest flows year-to-date and achieved USD10.5 billion in June alone. Europe stock, foreign large blend, and real estate ETF categories gathered the most year-to-date flows as of June.
