RIAs adjusted over half of their ETF positions in 2024, incorporating more funds and new managers into their allocations, according to a new study from
Atlanta-based AdvisorPro, an RIA and financial advisor intelligence platform. This was due to increased usage of thematic and alternative ETFs.
The 2025 RIA ETF Trends Report, which AdvisorPor compiled by analyzing the 13F filings of 4,768 RIAs, also found that multi-sector and ultrashort bond ETFs saw strong inflows and that the average number of ETFs per firm rose 14%, with two-thirds of RIAs increasing allocations.
Additionally, while traditional issuers, such as iShares, Vanguard and SPDR, remain the most popular asset managers with which RIAs work, firms such as JPMorgan, Dimensional and First Trust, among others, are gaining market share.
AdvisorPro’s analysis identified the surging adoption of thematic ETFs (including crypto-based funds) as one of the more significant trends.
“Historically seen as niche or tactical allocations, thematic ETFs are now being integrated into long-term investment strategies, reflecting growing advisor confidence in sector-specific and trend-driven funds,” according to the report.
In addition, RIAs collectively added 667 new ETFs to allocations in 2024 that were not part of any portfolios in 2023. Overall, RIAs held positions in about 3,800 total ETFs, so that means 17% of allocations were to ETFs new to RIA portfolios in 2024.
Moreover, AdvisorPro looked at how many ETF positions were bought or sold in 2024 and found that RIA portfolios had a 51% turnover ratio. The firm also found that RIAs increased the number of ETFs they used by about 14% on average, rising from 73 unique ETFs in 2023 to 81 in 2024.
“Fixed income ETFs had significant growth in our analysis, which makes sense given interest rates and RIAs looking for yield,” said AdvisorPro founder and CEO Michael Magnan. “There was also growth in derivatives/options-based ETFs and defined-outcome strategies that can mitigate risk. And if you want to look directly at thematic ETFs, of the top 10 that experienced the highest growth, four were based on digital assets.”
Magnan added that in analyzing the numbers, there seem to be two types of RIAs. One group includes RIAs adding nuanced and making some tactical changes to their portfolios. Others are buy-and-hold RIAs, which generally have a core set of offerings that they don’t tinker with much.
When it comes to issuers, 4,405 RIAs (about 92% of AdvisorPro’s sample) use products from iShares, followed by 4,292 for SPDR State Street Global, 3,960 for Vanguard and 3,538 for Invesco. Schwab (2,638), First Trust (1,876), JP Morgan (1,875), VanEck (1,821), WisdomTree (1,583) and Dimensional (1,380) round out the top 10.
In terms of year-over-year growth, however, Dimensional saw a 13.5% increase in the number of RIAs using its ETFs, followed by JPMorgan (9.5%), WisdomTree (4.9%) and Schwab (4.2%), while iShares (0.3%), SPDR (1.3%) and Vanguard (1.4%) had lower growth rates due to the already high levels of market penetration and the fact that some of the faster-growing players have launched differentiated strategies.
Among emerging issuers with lower market penetration, Neos Funds had the fastest year-over-year growth, with 190 RIAs using its ETFs in 2024, up from 85 in 2023, an increase of 123.5%. Other issuers with big jumps included T.Rowe Price (250 to 429, 71.6%), Defiance ETFs (90 to 146, 56%), Virtus (177 to 277, 56.5%), Janus Henderson (506 to 767, 51.6%), Capital Group (469 to 703, 49.9%) and AllianceBernstein (83 to 123, 48.2%).
AdvisorPro identified a few themes amid these issuers’ growth, including product mix (i.e., tax-efficient and options-based ETF strategies), traditional asset managers moving into the ETF space more aggressively (such as T. Rowe and Capital Group), and increased use of active, thematic ETFs and fixed-income ETFs.
The report also identified individual ETFs with the most rapid year-over-year growth in adoption by RIAs. A few on the list included fixed-income strategies, a category RIAs heavily allocated to during the year.
AdvisorPro also ranked the top 10 Morningstar categories by the percentage increase in allocations.
“The strongest growth came from municipal bonds, equity hedging, digital assets and trading-oriented strategies, reflecting a mix of risk management, alternative income generation and tactical positioning trends,” AdvisorPro stated in the report. “Notably, digital assets ETFs surged 246%, signaling a sharp rise in advisor confidence in crypto-related products.”
Overall, AdvisorPro counted 1,528 RIAs using digital asset ETFs in 2024, up from 442 in 2023. That category had the largest raw growth, although three other categories (Muni California Intermediate, Equity Hedged and Leveraged Equity) had higher percentage growth off smaller bases in 2023.
