What’s Popular in Portfolios?

Advisor portfolios show strong consensus in fixed income but much greater dispersion in equities, while active-versus-passive decisions are made asset class by asset class and fund popularity does not indicate portfolio importance.

• The analysis covers 57 geographically broad advisor models, mostly from high-net-worth managers at independent firms and banks, using data from Purpose Investments’ Partnership Program.
• Canso Corporate Value Bond appears in 53% of portfolios, versus 30% for Dynamic Premium Yield; the most common equity exposures include Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight, Fidelity Global Innovators and iShares S&P/TSX Composite.
• Among the 52 portfolios with fixed-income exposure, 58% hold the most popular fund and 81% hold at least one of the five most popular; in international equities, the figures are only 18% and 68%, while Canadian equities have the lowest top-five concentration.
• Active exposure reaches 90% in global equity, 75% in fixed income and 73% in Canadian equity, but only 26% in U.S. equity; overall, 74% of U.S. equity exposure is indexed.
• Passive U.S. exposure is implemented through market-cap, equal-weight, factor and Nasdaq approaches, while global equity funds have an average U.S. weight of 58%; 19 of the 33 global-equity holders pair them with some passive exposure.
• Canso is widely held but has a moderate portfolio weight, whereas Purpose Core Equity Income is held by fewer portfolios but with stronger conviction when included, showing that popularity and importance are different measures.

Takeaway: The data is useful as a reference for identifying consensus and alternative implementation choices, but it does not reveal a perfect portfolio or establish that popular funds will perform better; investors should examine position size, rationale and fit within each portfolio.