The latest in financial #AdviserTech — December 2020
The big news, announcements and underlying trends emerging in the world of technology solutions for financial advisers!
December 18, 2020
38
MINS
This month’s edition kicks off with the big news that BlackRock is making a billion-dollar bet on the future of direct indexing, acquiring the No. 2 player, Aperio, just weeks after Morgan Stanley acquired the No. 1 direct indexing provider, Parametric, which given BlackRock’s sheer mass and distribution capabilities, could quickly turn 2021 into the year that direct indexing really hits the map with financial advisers, either for its inherent tax advantages (of being able to tax-loss-harvest the individual stocks in the index, rather than just the index fund itself) or the potential to morph into a form of “customized indexing” in which advisers adapt “index” funds for each client based on anything from factor bets (e.g., overweighting small-cap and value) or ESG preferences (e.g., underweighting tobacco and overweighting renewable energy). Though from BlackRock’s perspective, it’s still not clear whether it really sees direct indexing as the great disruptor of ETFs — or simply wants to hedge against the risk that it might be (in light of its own multitrillion-dollar iShares ETF business).