Exchange-traded funds have been the hottest vehicle in the investing world for some time now - they've grown at a rate of 48 percent since the start of 2010, as opposed to mutual funds growing at just 9 percent, according to Morningstar. There's still a huge gap between the two categories, though. Mutual funds have total assets of $9 trillion, while ETFs have just $1.3 trillion.
Will there come a time when ETFs overtake mutual funds as America's preferred investing vehicle? That's what the fund-reporting service Ignites asked in a recent survey. Most of the respondents said it won't happen for a long time: 36% said ETFs won't surpass mutual funds in terms of assets for at least 20 years, while another 21 percent said it would never happen.
But 28 percent said it could happen within 10 years, and 15 percent said within five. It would take a real change of mind-set among investors - and huge inroads for ETFs in Americans' 401(k)s - for that to happen.
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