This is how advisors are tackling client demand for ETFs, says Independent Advisor Alliance

Advisors are prioritizing factors such as compliance, cost, and client user experience when it comes to harnessing Exchange-traded funds, according to David Buzo, chief marketing officer at Independent Advisor Alliance.

“I was speaking to one of our advisors early this morning and how they are evolving their practice to do more holistic planning of like tax strategies, and estate planning, and getting a lot more involved in the insurance,” he told InvestmentNews at the Exchange ETF conference in Las Vegas. “I see the same thing sometimes when our advisors are asking us of what we’re doing for either new ETF platforms or alternatives, or anything like that, and crypto.”

“The great advisor is going to be ahead of what their clients are asking, and not ‘oh, I have never thought of that before’,” he added.

Advisors are also looking at what ETF platforms mean for them from a compliance and risk perspective, as well as weighing the user experience for their clients, according to Buzo. Other key priorities are cost and the reporting of data, he told InvestmentNews.

The Independent Advisor Alliance is a hybrid RIA that partners with over 140 advisor firms in the U.S., supervising over $23 billion in assets.

The ETF landscape has been shifting in recent years, with active ETFs, in particular, booming amid investor demand. Active ETF inflows as a portion of all exchange traded funds have doubled since 2022, according to Goldman Sachs, with assets topping $1.8 trillion across the globe.

Last year data from Cerulli Associates said that active ETF assets ballooned to $1.17 trillion in the second quarter of 2025, compared to just $71 billion in 2018. However, 71% of the ETF issuers surveyed by Cerulli said it is difficult to get shelf space for active ETF products on broker-dealer platforms and 58% said that advisors need more education on the use of active ETFs.