William Blair: 56% of RIAs expect to raise active ETF allocations to international and emerging markets

Fifty-six percent of the 200 US-based RIAs polled by William Blair Investment Management expect to raise their active ETF allocations to international and emerging markets over the next 12 months, InvestmentNews reports. Passive ETFs, mutual funds, model portfolios and individual securities drew no comparable interest in the survey, according to the report.

The stated reason is concentration: 73% of respondents said client portfolios are heavily concentrated in US equities, and 90% said international diversification matters more now than a year ago. "Advisors aren't stepping away from the U.S., but they are casting a wider net," said Jay Lisowski, global head of product strategy and development at William Blair Investment Management.

Lisowski's case for the active wrapper rests on index construction. Benchmarks across non-US markets can carry blind spots from differing country classifications and inclusion rules, he said, and an actively managed ETF lets an investor make those portfolio decisions while keeping the structure's tax efficiency, liquidity and transparency.

Research from UMB Fund Services and FUSE Research Network found active ETF adoption tripled in five years, with active strategies holding roughly 12% of the $14.9 trillion US ETF market through April 2026, up from 4% in 2021. That research also showed 22% of advisors planned to reduce their use of active mutual funds. Active strategies drew about $574 billion through the first nine months of 2026, close to 40% of US-listed ETF flows while holding 13% of industry assets, according to State Street Investment Management, and total US-listed ETF inflows reached a record $1.54 trillion through September, above the full-year 2025 total of $1.52 trillion.

The 56% figure measures stated intent collected by one asset manager's survey, not completed allocations, and the flow numbers above track the wider market rather than the 200 firms polled. Whether the intention becomes weight in client accounts will show up in holdings, not in the next survey.