RIA arranged over half of their ETF positions in 2024, including more new funds and managers in their allocations, according to a new study by
Atlanta -based Advisorpro, a RIA intelligence platform and financial advisor. This was due to the increased use of thematic and alternative ETFs.
2025 RIA ETF Trend ReportWhich Advisorpor compiled by analyzing 13F recordings of 4,768 RIA also found that connections with multi-sectors and ultrashort ETF saw strong flows and that the average number of ETF per firm increased 14%, with two-thirds of increased allocations of RIA.
Moreover, while traditional emitters, such as Ishares, Vanguard and SPDR, remain the most renowned wealth managers with whom they work in Rias, firms such as JPMORGAN, Dimensional and first confidence, among other things, are gaining market share.
Advisorpro analysis identified the adoption of thematic ETFs (including cryptocurrency-based funds) as one of the most significant trends.
“Historically seen as warm or tactical allocations, thematic ETFs are now integrating into long-term investment strategies, reflecting the growing confidence of councilors in specific and trendy-led funds,” according to the report.
Moreover, Rias collectively added 667 new ETF to allocations in 2024 that were not part of any portfolio in 2023. In general, Rias held positions at about 3,800 ETF total, which means 17% of allocations were for ETF for RIA portfolios in 2024.
Moreover, Advisorpro looked at how many ETF positions were purchased or sold in 2024 and found that RIA portfolios had a 51%circulation ratio. The firm also found that RIA increased the number of ETFs they used by about 14% on average, increasing from 73 ETF to 2023 to 81 in 2024.
“ETF of fixed income had a significant increase in our analysis, which makes sense given the interest rates and ria in search of yield,” said the founder and CEO of Advisorpro Michael Michael. “There was also an increase in derivatives/ETFs based on the defined options and strategies that can mitigate the risk. And if you want to look directly at the thematic ETF, out of the top 10 countries that suffered the highest growth, four were based on digital assets.”
Magnan added that in the analysis of numbers, there seems to be two types of RIA. A group includes RIAS by adding the nuance and making some tactical changes to their portfolios. Others are the RIA of buying and holding, which generally have an essential set of offers that they do not connect with much.
When it comes to emitters, 4,405 RIA (about 92% of Advisorpro's sample) use products from Ishare, followed by 4,292 for SPDR Street Global, 3,960 for Vanguard and 3,538 for Investo. Schwab (2,638), Trust First (1,876), JP Morgan (1,875), Vaneck (1,821), Wisdomree (1,583) and dimensional (1,380) round top 10.
However, in terms of year-to-year growth, dimensional without a 13.5%increase in the number of RIA using its ETFs, followed by JPMORGA (9.5%), Wisdomree (4.9%) and Schwab (4.2%players have launched differentiated strategies.
Among the developers with the lowest market penetration, Neos funds had the fastest growth year by year, with 190 RIA using its ETFs in 2024, from 85 to 2023, an increase of 123.5%. Other large jumps included T.Rowe Price (250 to 429, 71.6%), Defiance ETFS (90 to 146, 56%), Virtus (177 in 277, 56.5%), Janus Henderson (506 in 767, 51.6%), Capital Group (469 in 703, 49.9%) and Alliancebernste (83 in 123, 51.6.6%) 48.2%).
Advisorpro identified some topics between the growth of these issues, including the product mix (ie, ETF strategies with tax efficiency and options), traditional assets that move in more aggressive ETF space (such as T. Rowe and capital group), and increased ETF use.
The report also identified individual ETFs with the fastest growth of one year a year in adoption by RIA. Some on the list included fixed revenue strategies, a highly allocated Rias category during the year.
Advisorpro also listed the top 10 categories of Morningstar with the increase in the percentage of allocations.
“The strongest growth came from municipal bonds, net capital protection, digital assets and trade -oriented strategies, reflecting a mix of risk management, generation of alternative income and tactical positioning tendencies,” Advisorpro said. “In particular, digital ETF assets increased 246%, signaling a sharp increase in counseling confidence in cryptocurrency -related products.”
In general, Advisorpro numbered 1,528 RIA using digital ETFs in 2024, from 442 to 2023.