Investments in exchange-traded funds set a record last year, and 52% of U.S. investors plan to buy an ETF this year, BlackRock reported Wednesday.
BlackRock's inaugural ETF Pulse Survey showed that 94% of U.S. financial advisors polled expect to invest in ETFs in client portfolios over the coming year. Eighty-two percent currently use the vehicles in the portfolios they manage.
A quarter of mainly younger investors already use ETFs, the survey found. These tend to be more engaged in managing their finances than the overall investment population, and more optimistic about their financial future.
"What's encouraging is that people who like ETFs really like them," Martin Small, head of U.S. iShares at BlackRock, said in a statement. "These are confident investors who plan to continue to put their cash to work in the markets with ETFs, and expect to keep it there for the long term."
Kantar TNS, a research agency, conducted an online poll for BlackRock in September of 1,001 U.S. investors and 409 financial advisors.
ETF Benefits and Uses
The survey found that ETF investors are generally more active in the markets and hold 17% cash in their investment portfolios, compared with 29% cash held by non-ETF investors.
Of respondents currently invested in ETFs, 90% said they intended to allocate new investments to ETFs in 2017, and 79% said they felt positive about their financial future for 2017.
At present, 33% of millennials are invested in ETFs, compared with 25% of other investors on average, according to the survey results. Seventy percent of millennials said they planned to invest in ETFs in the next 12 months, versus 52% of other investors.
