ETFs have been a fee destroyer since their inception, and advisors/companies have been forced to either play along or bleed AUM. However, direct/custom is putting the power back in in the hands of the advisors. BlackRock, Vanguard, and Morgan Stanley are all buying their way into the direct indexing craze. Direct Indexing is giving investors and advisors the best of both active and passive investing worlds. While stock picking might not have the best record, starting from a base index and then stripping or adding based on preference could give investors. Custom Indexing can be for a preference for/or against a stock but more importantly it gives investors the reins when it comes to their tax burdens.

FINSUM: Direct Indexing is the goldilocks solution to the low fee/advisor specialty conundrum, and will be the dominant trend in investing over the next decade.