Wall Street’s ETF Assets Hit $10 Trillion Milestone

(Bloomberg) -- Assets held by exchange-traded funds in the US hit $10 trillion for the first time as the investor-friendly products continue their relentless takeover of Wall Street.

A combination of inflows and market gains carried total assets over the milestone this week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. Investors have poured $691 billion into the funds this year, as US stock gauges have notched repeated records.

The $10 trillion now under management in American ETFs is the latest testament to how the easy-to-trade vehicles have transformed the investment landscape. Mutual funds have been bleeding assets as investors switch to the more liquid, tax-friendly structures. In turn, money managers have seen fee income slump as the low-cost products gain in popularity, and issuers have raced to offer ever-more complex strategies in the wrapper.

This year saw 691 billion in inflows YTD

The growth has been “incredible,” says Amrita Nandakumar, president of Vident Asset Management, especially since the ETF ecosystem touched the $1 trillion milestone just 14 years ago.

“ETFs now offer nearly universal access to asset classes and strategies that were once available only to the world’s most sophisticated institutional investors,” Nandakumar said. That’s a “testament to how much ETFs have democratized investing.”