江湖电竞比赛表最新

Broadridge tracks the investment portfolios of 44 million U.S. households with $7 trillion assets in mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and individual stocks sold through financial intermediaries. The recent study was conducted based on 20,000 random samples of the data, which spans from the year end of 2017 to the first half of 2020. The data does not include cash savings, bank accounts, retirement plans, real assets, or direct fixed income investments. Below are a few findings of the analysis: 

Younger investors with fewer assets are becoming increasingly active participants.

There has been a significant uptick in investing households that have less than $100,000 in assets, according to the study. In 2017, the group only accounted for 30% of all the investing households. By mid-2020, the percentage has increased to 38%. Their share in assets ownership has also increased from 7% to 10%. “We are all witnessing an unprecedented and accelerated democratization of U.S. investing,” said Bob Schifellite, Broadridge’s Investor Communication Solutions President.

Younger investors, particularly millennials, represent the fastest-growing demographic group among retail investors. As of mid-2020, millennials accounted for 14% of the total investing households, up from just 9% in 2017. The commission-free trades and gamification of investment interfaces have all attracted young people with less money, says Dan Cwenar, Broadridge’s President of Data and Analytics. Millennials’ share of invested assets has also grown, although still relatively low, at just 4% of the total. Baby boomers remain the largest investor group, making up 54% of the total assets among all investing households.

Lower-cost funds and share classes continued to gain traction.  

From 2017 to 2020, the percentage of investing households owning ETFs, which have cheaper management fees and higher tax efficiency, has grown from 30% to 37%. ETFs have seen tremendous asset flows over the past several years, adding $107 billion in new retail assets in the first half of 2020 alone. Mutual funds, on the other hand, lost $302 billion in retail investor assets during the same period. 

For mutual funds investors, lower-cost institutional shares––once only available to high-net-worth investors––are gaining prevalence among all wealth groups. In 2017, only 44% of the investing households owned institutional shares, the number has jumped to 54% by mid-2020. A-class shares, usually more expensive but still the most widely held share class, saw its household ownership decline from 43% to 39%. “This is important because the less you spend your investment on costs, the more you have on returns,” says Cwenar. 

Online platforms grow in popularity, but broker-dealers remain mainstream. 

Although there’s been a gradual increase in usage of online brokerage platforms like Charles Schwab , E*Trade, and Robinhood, the traditional broker-dealers––including independent advisors and those associated with banks––remain the most popular channel for retail investors. As of mid-2020, about 55% of investing households used broker-dealers, while 25% took charge of their own portfolios using online platforms. 

This is true even for millennials, which might be somewhat surprising given the group’s reputation as fervent Robinhood users . The more established channels, such as broker-dealers and wirehouses, might be used by some young investors as they inherited wealth––and the existing advisors––from their parents, explains Cwenar. 

Wirehouses like Morgan Stanley (MS) and Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch, particularly, hold the highest share of high-net-worth investors and therefore have a potential edge if they can connect effectively with the heirs, according to the report. To win over the millennials’ hearts, these large players are actively making acquisitions and changes to their business models and branding. But if those efforts fail, they might risk losing business during this generational wealth transfer. 

Write to Evie Liu at evie.liu@barrons.com