Brokerage powerhouses are increasingly promoting new approaches for investors to access low-cost exchange-traded funds as an alternative to ordinary mutual funds, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The bumper crop of brokerage-driven ETF services aims to capitalize on retail investors growing appetites for inexpensive investments. At the same time, competition among ETF distributors is heating up, with an influx of new technology designed to simplify the process of investing in ETFs.
For example, Ameritrades newly launched Amerivest service combines risk-tolerance and portfolio building applications, competing with E*Trades ETF Center, a Web-based research facility offering investment profiles and selection tools for approximately 158 ETFs. Investors seeking professional management can find ETFs in A.G. Edwards Allocation Advisors program, while Morgan Stanley is finalizing plans to incorporate ETFS into its fee-based managed accounts program.
Assets invested in ETFs at Merrill Lynch doubled from last year to nearly $9 billion. Roughly 60% of the growth in the asset class occurred in
