Trends in Investing

The Financial Planning Association® (FPA®) today released a Trends in Investing Special Report that is featured in the June edition of The Journal of Financial Planning,focusing on trends in investing along with an accompanying whitepaper further detailing the research findings.

Key findings of the report and whitepaper detail current investment trends being utilized by financial professionals. The research found that exchange-traded fund (ETF) use continues to soar with three of every four advisers using/recommending ETFs with clients.

Another key finding of the research is that nearly half of advisers outsource some portion of their investment management. Nearly a third (31.4 percent) use separately managed accounts (SMAs), 23.3 percent use turnkey asset management programs (TAMPs), 6.9 percent use a different outsource method, and only 57 percent say they do not outsource investment management for any clients.

The research illustrates that the active-versus-passive debate continues with a quarter of advisers reporting they are using more actively managed funds than they were a year ago, and one in six advisers reporting an increased use of passive funds.