ETF From equitizing cash to core holdings: How asset owners are rethinking ETFs

Garrett Glawe
Powers Brendan
and
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Key takeaways

  • Accelerating adoption: ETF assets held by North American institutional asset owners have nearly doubled in five years to $337 billion, growing at roughly triple the rate of the broader U.S. institutional market.

  • Expanding use cases: Asset owners are moving beyond cash equitization, using ETFs as strategic core holdings, tactical adjustment tools, and public-market proxies for private assets.

  • Deeper issuer partnerships: ETF providers are increasingly valued for education, research, analytics, and trading support—not just the fund itself.

For years, institutional investors treated ETFs largely as an operational tool for equitizing cash. That view is changing quickly. Asset owners across North America are broadening how they use the wrapper across core allocations, tactical positioning, and even co-manufactured exposures.

That was the central message of a recent webinar, Rethinking ETFs in Institutional Portfolios: How Asset Owners Are Broadening Use Cases, hosted by Institutional Investor. The discussion featured Garrett Glawe, CFA, Head of Asset Owner and Consultant ETF Specialists at Invesco, and Brendan Powers, CFA, Co-Head of Product Development and Institutional Practices at Cerulli Associates. The discussion drew on Invesco and Cerulli’s new joint research, Inside Institutional ETF Adoption: How asset owners are broadening use cases.

A market growing 3x the institutional average

At a time when the total pool of institutional assets is experiencing relatively tepid growth, ETFs stand out as an impressive outlier. Cerulli sized the North American institutional asset owner ETF market at approximately $337 billion, a figure the firm considers conservative given how difficult ETF ownership is to track. Assets have grown at a 14.4% five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR), roughly three times the 5% CAGR of the broader U.S. institutional market. ETFs owned by endowments and foundations grew even faster, north of 32%.


Asset owner ETF usage is growing with no signs of slowing

Public defined benefit plans remain the largest ETF holders at $134 billion, which makes sense given their large portfolios and sophisticated internal trading teams. However, foundations, endowments, and health and hospital systems have emerged as some of the fastest-growing ETF users among allocator segments.

Forward-looking survey data indicates the growth in ETF usage shows no signs of slowing. Nearly 40% of asset owners plan to increase ETF exposure over the next two years, the highest net figure of any wrapper Cerulli tracks. 

Use cases are broadening and increasingly innovative

The volume of usage isn’t the only shift in the market; how and why institutions are deploying ETFs have evolved dramatically, as well. Traditional applications such as cash equitization and transition management still matter, but institutions increasingly use ETFs for longer-horizon tactical and strategic objectives.

Invesco's review of ETF holdings among U.S. asset owners found the average holding period was about two and a half years, with some clients holding positions for five years or more. This reflects a marked shift from using ETFs as trading vehicles to core positions.

The webinar panelists shared several examples of how this new approach to ETF usage is playing out in institutional portfolios. Many asset owners are using the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) to address concentration concerns in the US equity market.  One endowment dedicates a 5% sleeve of its portfolio to ETFs, adjusting a handful of positions inside that sleeve up and down to rebalance around illiquid private equity holdings. Others use Invesco's Senior Loan ETF (BKLN) as both a bank-loan exposure and a public-market proxy for private credit. A growing cohort is going further by partnering directly with issuers to co-create products. MERS of Michigan worked with Invesco to seed three Invesco S&P Quality, Value, and Momentum Multi-factor ETFs.  They seeded these ETFs with $1 billion in 2021 and now have $1.9 billion invested in them as of 2025 year-end.

ETF providers have become indispensable partners

As institutional allocations to ETFs deepen, asset owners are asking more of their issuers. Fees, liquidity, tracking error, and assets under management still top the due diligence list, but provider brand and partnership resources are garnering increased attention during the fund selection and vetting process.

Cerulli’s Powers said the shift is most pronounced among leaner investment teams at institutions with $1 billion–$3 billion. This cohort increasingly leans on issuers for research, analytics, portfolio construction tools, and educational support. Glawe added that securities lending is another underappreciated benefit of owning ETFs; for a fund like BKLN, lending revenue may offset a meaningful portion of the expense ratio.

What it means for asset owners

The ETF wrapper is still a fast, cost-effective way to put capital to work. But the growth story is now about depth: larger[GG1]  allocations, longer holding periods, more customized exposures, and closer issuer partnerships.

Watch the full replay of Rethinking ETFs in Institutional Portfolios to hear the complete discussion.