WisdomTree Investments has announced that assets under management have surpassed $50 billion. WisdomTree is the only independent, publicly traded asset manager focusing exclusively on the exchange-traded product market.
Jonathan Steinberg, CEO and President of WisdomTree Investments. (File image © The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.)
“WisdomTree is an ETF success story at the forefront of the biggest trends in asset management,” said Jonathan Steinberg, WisdomTree CEO & President.
“While we are experiencing record inflows of $9.7 billion led by our pioneering currency hedged family this year, the foundation of our growth rests in our larger commitment to innovation in ETFs. We have been a consistent asset gatherer since launching our first ETFs in 2006, with growth accelerating in recent years.”
With more than $2 trillion in AUM, the US ETF industry is still only a fraction of the $13 trillion traditional mutual fund market. However, according to the Investment Company Institute, since 2007 ETFs have generated approximately 54% of the total inflows into ETFs and long-term mutual funds. Furthermore, during this time period ETFs generated positive inflows into equity funds of approximately $1.0 trillion and long-term equity mutual funds experienced outflows of approximately $278 billion.
“I believe the movement to ETF investing is a structural, universal and irreversible trend because the characteristics of the ETF – transparency, liquidity and tax efficiency – are the qualities essential to a positive investing experience,” said Steinberg.
WisdomTree launched its first ETFs in June of 2006 and has reached the milestone in under ten years’ time. The company’s approach to the ETF business includes innovation at the index level such as fundamentally weighted ‘smart beta’ and currency hedged equity ETFs based on proprietary WisdomTree indices.
Today WisdomTree’s product family spans equities, currencies, fixed income and alternative strategies and includes transparent, actively managed ETFs. Following the formation of WisdomTree Europe in April of 2014, the company has launched six WisdomTree UCITS ETFs across the London Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, SIX Swiss Exchange and Deutsche Börse and has expanded the Boost-branded short and leverage ETP product set throughout Europe as well.
Steinberg added, “At the product strategy level, a commitment to practical but differentiated investment solutions has allowed us to identify important growth opportunities, and our expanding financial resources give us the ability to pursue our ambitious growth goals, here in the US and in other international ETF markets.”
Steinberg concluded, “In 2009, WisdomTree stated a long-term goal to become a top-five player in the US ETF market based on assets. After achieving this milestone in 2013, we announced our next long-term goal to become a $100 billion asset manager. We are well on our way, and I believe we have the product platform, the people and the strategic vision to build upon our strong position within ETFs and the broader asset management industry.”