FYI: Financial advisors who managed client money before 1993 had a few public options available to them: mostly mutual funds, individual stocks and individual bonds.
They left asset allocation in the hands of actively managed mutual funds, but that vehicle’s structure meant they didn’t know what they were holding real-time. Then along came the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY), which would radically change how advisors accessed the market, the cost they’d pay for that access, transparency, the tax efficiency and a host of other improvements over mutual funds. Fast-forward to 2019: ETFs are a $5 trillion global business.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.etf.com/publications/etfr/how-have-etfs-changed-advisory-business
