Assets in ETF managed portfolios grew 7% in the fourth quarter of 2017 to $123 billion, according to Morningstar's latest report on these investment strategies. All the portfolios it tracks have more than half their assets invested in ETFs.
The 25 largest firms accounted for all the asset growth in the fourth quarter, led by Vanguard, which alone accounted for one-quarter of the additional $8.4 billion in assets.
Vanguard's ETF managed portfolio assets grew by $1.72 billion. State Street Global Advisors and BlackRock followed, with new assets growing by $1.1 billion and $711 million, respectively, in the fourth quarter.
"The fastest growing players are the ETF sponsors themselves," says Ben Johnson, director of global ETF research. "They are increasingly moving away from selling pie slices to selling whole pies."
The ETF managed portfolios, used primarily for advisor clients, are a subset of Morningstar's separately managed accounts database. Morningstar tracks 1,180 ETF managed strategists from 182 firms.
