Ascent Etf, that's why BlackRock believes it's just the beginning

The popularity of ETFs it has grown enormously in recent years and the ride could continue for a long time.
In Europe, BlackRock calculates (the largest global supplier of ETFs), this type of passively managed fund has invested assets of 940 billion dollars.
The figure, relative to the end of September 2019 shows an increase of 20% compared to the beginning of the year, when the assets amounted to 780 billion.

Growth without brakes

ETFs and index funds, in their simplest forms, replicate the performance of a reference index and are passive management. As has often been pointed out, to attract the investor was, first of all, the possibility of saving on the management fees of the active funds.
The promise of "beating the reference index" is considered to be not credible on the basis of the historical data of the average of the active funds, at least if we face the problem by aggregating the data (and making all the grass a bundle).

According to BlackRock the relationship between costs and returns is not the only reason that will continue to push the request for ETFs and index funds: even active portfolios, in fact "work more" with indexing.

"A more granular understanding of the different sources of performance and a greater focus on efficiency are promoting consensus on the effectiveness of indexed strategies within active portfolios," writes BlackRock. "
Investors look carefully at the mix of combined strategies, between alpha, factor and index, aimed at overcoming the obsolete dichotomy between active or passive management and focus on building efficiencies within their portfolio with a dual objective: containment of overall costs to focus on real sources of "alpha" or alternative sources, for which investors are willing to pay an extra fee, risk management and reduction of governance costs ".

To these elements is added the growing offer of digital asset management, a "as a new paradigm that makes investments accessible to an increasingly broader panel of people" that often sees in ETFs a key tool in the construction of portfolios.

Finally, the widening of the possibilities of choice: “Italian asset managers are increasingly organized to provide investment solutions built with ETFs and index funds.
This development is opening up new opportunities of choice for investors who want to build ever more effective and diversified portfolios ".