ETFs Proving Popular With Younger Investors

Exchange traded products are themselves a young investment product, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that they are proving popular with younger investors. ETFs make up about 10% of the average Generation X or Y investment portfolio, according to recent client data from discount broker TD Ameritrade AMTD. The brokerage firm noted that ETF balances across all generations are higher today than they were six months ago, a testament to the soaring popularity of exchange traded products. "Retail investors are really embracing the exposure to more specialized markets that ETFs can provide,” said Mike McGrath, director of ETFs, TD Ameritrade, in a statement. “We're seeing more investors, young and old, using ETFs in increasingly sophisticated ways – they're using the entire keyboard rather than just one octave.” Assets for U.S.-listed exchange traded products jumped to $1.078 trillion in March as cash inflows totaled $11.2 billion. BlackRock BLK, parent of iShares, the largest U.S. ETF issuer, said earlier this week that global exchange traded products assets under managment should jump to $2 trillion by the end of this year. When it comes to institutions, almost 55% of institutions said that they expected to use ETFs more, including a fifth that expected their ETF assets to grow by 5% to 10%, according to Financial Planning.