Direct indexing is driving many headlines but investors want to know the brass tax: if they are really worth it compared to ETFs. ETFs' advantages over direct indexing are their ease of use and flexibility because they trade like stocks. They tend to have lower fees than a strategy like direct indexing as well, but hiccups happen and an ETF could make a mistake when tracking the underlying asset. Direct indexing investors own the stocks that make up the index, this gives huge advantages when it comes to tax loss harvesting. Moreover, it gives a different level of flexibility by customizing risk exposure. There are two big drawbacks, the first being this is essentially an active management strategy that requires careful attention and rebalancing. Finally, fractional shares can vastly limit your brokerage options.

Finsum: The biggest component appears to be tax-loss harvesting, if you can get enough alpha here direct indexing could prove viable.