With the explosion of the ETF market, the focus has fallen on new avenues of distribution. Discussing the issue at NICSA's 26th Annual Conference and Expo in Miami Tuesday morning were Joseph Keenan, managing director of the Bank of New York (who served as the moderator) Noel Archand, principal and head of iShares product development at Barclays Global Investors, Tom Carter, managing director, business development at ALPS Fund Services and Jim Ross, president SSgA Funds Management.

Ross began by noting that there are two areas of distribution growth for ETF, financial advisors and retail. One thing advisors want from fund companies are materials to educate their clients about ETFs.

NICSA ETF Panel

Carter said he sees ETF wrap programs gaining in popularity. Mutual funds that invest in ETFs and use them in an active way are also gaining momentum, he said.

Also, Carter sees ETFs becoming underlying assets in 401(k) plan, although he admitted this channel has been hard to access. For this to happen, ETF companies must figure out how to work ETFs into these plans without losing their traditional benefits.

For his part, Archand thinks that ETFs may have more use in the small plan market than the large plan market.

The panel also touched on the hot button topic of active ETFs. Ross sees the first batch of active ETFs to fall short of expectations, but will still get a lot of press. Archand agreed, saying the first active ETFs will be what could be referred to as "active light."  

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