Help your clients to achieve their goals with more personalised and precise investment solutions
Over the past two decades, index allocations have become a portfolio staple in the wealth management marketplace. More recently, direct indexing has risen to prominence in the index investing conversation.
As a growing number of wealth management firms and advisors implement direct indexing solutions, it’s essential they don’t underestimate the importance of index selection.
Our goal is to help wealth and asset managers add value for their clients via direct indexing solutions that are carefully tailored to their specific needs and preferences.
Our world-famous benchmarks, such as the Russell US Indexes, provide a solid foundation for personalised investment strategies.
With approximately $19 trillion* in reported fund AUM for our benchmarks, advisors trust our indices to provide them with a robust, rules-driven and transparent foundation, providing a clear market segmentation across size (from micro to large cap) and style (growth, value, defensive, dynamic).
*Data as of June 30, 2024, Morningstar for active retail mutual funds, insurance products, and ETFs, and passive assets directly collected by FTSE Russell. AUM includes blended benchmarks and excludes futures and options. AUM data does not include active and passive assets not reported to a 3rd party source or FTSE Russell. For funds where the AUM was not reported as of December 31, 2023, the previous period AUM was used as an estimate. No assurances are given by FTSE Russell as to the accuracy of the data.
Features & benefits
Why use FTSE Russell indices?
The definitive benchmark for US equities. A broad ecosystem to support your direct indexing solutions and help you add value
Our world-famous Russell Style Indexes give you a precise measure of growth and value
Indices, data and expertise to help you meet your clients’ sustainable investment objectives with more precision
Key resources
Advisors Signal Strong Direct Indexing Opportunity
Most advisors say that they intend to increase use of direct indexing, although client education and implementation remain a challenge
Key Points:
- Most advisors are planning to step up their use of direct indexing (DI) in the next 12 months, with most advisors under 45 seeing it as key for remaining competitive. According to our survey, they see the greatest opportunity coming from wealthy clients.¹
- Tax management is DI’s greatest benefit, followed by its potential as a tool for reducing portfolio concentration. Artificial intelligence (AI) is serving as a catalyst speeding adoption, as it can automate implementation of tax efficiencies.
- But education remains a challenge, especially explaining DI to clients. Additionally, some advisors perceive implementation as a difficulty.
- FTSE Russell offers recognized index solutions for DI, including the Russell 3000 index that provides full representation of US equities. We’d welcome an opportunity to discuss our findings in more detail.
¹ Conducted by 8 Acre Perspective, the survey solicited input from 402 advisors between March 7 and March 24, 2025. For more information, see about our research at the back of this report.
Contact us
Talk to our experts about direct indexing
Ryan Sullivan
Michael DiSanti
Featured Content
The index matters – Find out why
It is a common misperception that two indices covering the same market segment must be, essentially, interchangeable. But a better constructed index can enable you to capture your clients’ investment requirements with greater precision and get earlier access to fast-growing stocks. How your index is constructed and maintained may sound theoretical – but the potential impact on performance is real.
2024 FTSE Russell Survey Direct Index Survey
Direct indexing: Poised for a fresh wave of growth
- Direct indexing looks poised for a new wave of growth, with advisors showing strong interest in using these tools to personalise client portfolios, according to a FTSE Russell survey.¹
- Much of the future growth is likely to be fueled by advisors offering direct indexing’s personalisation and tax optimisation benefits to clients with smaller account sizes. This presents a significant opportunity for the platform providers that best articulate the value proposition of direct indexing.
- FTSE Russell offers recognised index solutions and market intelligence to direct indexing platforms and wealth managers. We would welcome the opportunity to discuss our findings in more detail.
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