Model Portfolios Projected To Reach $18.6 Trillion by 2030
Model portfolios accounted for roughly a third of all assets held by retail intermediary channels in the first quarter of 2026, according to the “Model Portfolios Quarterly Trends Report” compiled by the fintech firm Broadridge Financial Solutions. Broadridge projects that over the next four years, the model portfolio industry will continue to grow at a double-digit rate, likely reaching $18.6 trillion by 2030.
The firm’s findings align with forecasts from other industry research, including Cerulli Associates and Morningstar, which show advisors’ increasing reliance on models. The past year has also seen a ramp-up in TAMPs partnering with third-party asset managers and wealthtech firms to create custom models and models that combine public and private assets.
According to Broadridge data, by year-end 2025, the model portfolio industry totaled $9.3 trillion in AUM, representing 18% growth since 2020. Over the next four years, Broadridge estimates model assets will grow by another 15.4%, to $18.6 trillion.
Today, broker/dealers hold the largest share of model assets in the retail intermediary channel, at 45%, with RIAs coming in second, at 28%. Wirehouses hold 18% of model assets, and the discount channel, represented by online trading platforms open to individual investors, 9%.
However, when it comes to the industry’s top 10 most popular models, which together total $287.3 billion in assets, broker/dealers maintain a strong dominance, at 83.1% of the marketplace. Wirehouses hold 8.8% of the top 10 model assets, while RIAs hold just 5% of the market share and online players 3.1%.
At the same time, Broadridge data shows that online was the only retail channel to experience growth in model asset AUM from the fourth quarter of 2025 through the first quarter of 2026, rising 3.6% to $321 billion. During the same period, RIAs saw their model AUM fall by 2.4% to roughly $1 trillion. Wirehouses experienced a 1.7% drop in model AUM, to $661 billion, while broker/dealers saw their model AUM decrease by 1%, to approximately $1.65 trillion.
Popular Structures
Model providers continue to increase their use of ETFs, with 58% of assets held in these vehicles in the first quarter of this year—up from 54% in the first quarter of 2025. During the same period, the share of model assets held in mutual funds fell from 46% to 42%.
In fact, ETF-only models accounted for 38% of the marketplace in the first quarter, up from 33.8% just three quarters earlier. Hybrid models accounted for roughly the same share of model assets as they did in the second quarter of 2025, at 37.4%. Meanwhile, mutual fund-only models showed a steady decline over the same period, from 28.6% in the second quarter of last year to 24.7% in the first quarter of the current one.
Passive ETFs accounted for almost half (48.9%) of model assets. Active mutual funds were the second-most-popular vehicle, at 37% of the model universe. Active ETFs accounted for 8.7% of model assets, with passive mutual funds last, at 5.4%.
Equities made up the majority of model allocations in the first quarter, at 67%. Another 28% of allocations went to bonds, with the rest allocated to “mixed assets” and other categories.
However, only 5.5% of equity assets in models in the first quarter of 2026 were pure equity core plays. About a fifth (20.7%) of the equity assets were growth-focused, with 14.7% targeting both growth and income and 13.3% targeting growth strategies primarily. Another 12.4% fit in the “ultra-aggressive” category, and 9.7% pursued “aggressive” strategies.
On the fixed-income side, 4% of assets fit in the “balanced” category, while 3.5% focused on conservative income and 2.6% sought “moderate balanced” strategies.