ETF Marketers Zoom in on Individual Investors

In recent weeks, advertisements for exchange-traded funds have begun re-appearing in places they have not been since the last  freewheeling days of the bull market of the late 1990s: during college football games on TV, in personal finance magazines and even in New York City subway cars.

Now that institutional investors and financial advisers have fully embraced ETFs, investment advisors are now targeting individual investors, The Wall Street Journal reports.

So far, if increased ETF trading volume at discount brokerage houses is any indication, the promotions are working. TD Ameritrade says that ETFs now account for 7% to 8% of daily trading volume, up from less than 2% two years ago. ShareBuilder says ETFs comprise 23% of account balances, up from 16% in 2004.

Two-thirds of flows to Barclays’ iShares line of ETFs is from retail investors, said Andrew Arenberg, director of marketing for iShares. Ten percent of all ETF flows is actually directly from investors, he added.

State Street is also pursuing retail investors for its line of ETFs. “Historically, we have tried to attract institutional investors and financial intermediaries,” said Dan Dolan, director of wealth management strategies for Select Sector SPDRs. “We’ve dug a little deeper in recent years to attract the ultimate investors.”

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.