Structured products will overtake exchange-traded funds in market share over the next several years. The latest research study by Financial Research Corp. called "Caught Between Alpha & Beta: The Future Of Retail Portfolio Construction" finds that structured products will increase their market share from 5.3% at the end of 2007 to 7.5% by 2012, while ETFs will have 6.8% of the market by 2012. "Structured products represent a wide variety of customized investment vehicles and a growing number of advisors are using them to provide principal protection to their retiree and baby boomer clients while still giving them market exposure," said Kristin Adamonis, senior editor.

A flight to safety by investors kept exchange-traded funds from bleeding assets during the month of September. While the $579.5 billion in ETF assets is a loss of about $2.9 billion for the month, according to the latest ETF Snapshot from State Street Global Advisors. The loss is modest compared to most equity indexes, which lost about 10%, said Tom Anderson, head of ETF strategy and research at SSGA.

Societe Generale Asset Management has launched the SGAM ETF T-Rex on the Euronext Paris exchange and, along with IndexIQ, is one of the first firms to embrace hedge fund ETFs. IndexIQ is readying a series of five ETFs that track hedge fund strategies (FA, 9/15). The SocGen fund tracks the HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index, which is down 9% this year.

Eaton Vance is considering a foray into exchange-traded funds. Matthew Witkos, head of distribution, said the firm is talking with consultants about the possibility of active and passive ETFs. He said an Eaton Vance offering would likely target high-net-worth investors by pursuing tax management or other strategies that the firm specializes in. Witkos said Eaton Vance already receives many requests from clients for offerings that invest in other firms’ ETFs, and he thinks it could be a natural next step to roll out proprietary offerings.