Special to the Financial Independence Hub
Last Friday, ETFs (Exchange-traded Funds) surpassed the magic $100 billion mark in assets under management in Canada and hopefully, continued growth in the markets and sales will keep us moving forward. But this milestone signals that many investors are gaining greater appreciation for these powerful, low cost and transparent investment vehicles.
And the industry is growing rapidly with new providers and products joining the ranks, regulatory changes on the horizon and technology changing the investment management field, like it has many others.
But the doubling of assets and tripling of ETF providers since 2010 is an indication that ETFs are being integrated into more investors’ portfolios. We see this every day with a growing number of ETF options and lower costs across the industry.
While there are a multitude of factors for the rising popularity of ETFs, I wanted to take a deeper look into four in particular.
- The rise of indexing.
- Increased competition.
- Regulatory efforts to increase the transparency and awareness of investment fees.
- More fee-based financial advisors.
The rise of indexing
Canada was an early innovator in ETFs, as the first ETF in the world was listed here in Canada 26 years ago. Continue Reading…