Several years ago, industry observers predicted that direct indexing would be the next wave of innovation to upturn the asset management industry, equal to the revolution of exchange traded funds and the rise of mutual funds prior to that.
Institutional investors have always customized their own portfolios, and separately managed accounts have long been used as an investment wrapper for wealth managers to richer clients. But for retail investors and most financial advisors, direct indexing or tweaking an index-based portfolio around the individual needs of the client was a small part of the investing world and few had shown an interest.