Brown Brothers Harriman has launched its first C-Suite Asset Manager Survey, which found that Covid-19, the economy and fee wars are the top concerns for C-suite executives.
The firm writes that as a result of those pressures, 52 per cent of asset managers plan to reduce the expense ratios on their products in the next year. Some 35 per cent of respondents said they are evaluating new strategies such as ETFs to expand their product suite.
The survey found that ETFs remain a core component of the product suite, with 63 per cent of respondents either having ETFs or are looking to enter the market.
ETFs present an opportunity for asset managers and active managers to meet investor demand, the survey says. The ETF market has had steady gains in 2020, with many large asset managers already having a strong representation in the ETF market. Some 89 per cent of large asset managers currently have ETFs or are looking to enter the market, according to the survey.
Semi-transparent ETFs will usher in a new crop of asset managers to the ETF market, and thanks to recent SEC approvals, US managers now have the options to limit their portfolio holdings disclosure, while taking advantage of the lower cost and tax efficiency of ETFs.
