The rise of model portfolios is not uniform across different types of financial advisors, at least according to new research from the folks at a Boston-area consulting firm that supports asset managers.

Michael "Mike" Evans Fuse Research Network Partner, Director of Advisor and Benchmark Research

Last week, Mike Evans, partner and director of advisor research at Fuse Research Network, unveiled findings from the Needham, Massachusetts-based shop's latest Advisor Trends Monitor "Portfolio Construction: The Advisor View" report. The report draws on an online survey, conducted from August 11 through August 13, of more than 510 FAs: 39 percent came from the independent broker-dealer channel, 26 percent from the RIA channel, and 12 percent from wirehouses.

"Models have become central to client portfolios, with advisor usage expanding across advisor-constructed, home office, and third-party options," Evans states.

The Fuse team finds that models are more popular among younger FAs and less popular among their elders.

"There is a direct correlation between advisor age and model usage," Evans tells MFWire via email. "The youngest advisors (<45) use models more heavily, with allocation levels 17% higher than advisors aged 60+."

Adoption of models varies by FA channel, too, with one channel way ahead of the others. Evans reports that among advisors at RIAs, 59 percent of their assets and 57 percent of their accounts are in models, with 85 percent of those FAs "often or sometimes" using models with clients. That's much higher than among FAs at indie B-Ds (where 41 percent of assets and 40 percent of accounts are in models) or with wirehouse FAs (where 38 percent of assets and 39 percent of accounts are in models).

Advisor-constructed models are the most commonly used type, Evans reports. Models built by home offices are the second most common, followed by third-party models. 

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