[2] The term smart beta was originally coined by Willis Towers Watson in 2006 referring to the fundamental index.
[3] Smart beta strategies have generated considerable interest from institutional investors in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
According to Morningstar, there were 632 strategic-beta exchange traded products at the end of June 2020 with $869.7 billion in assets.
[6] Asset managers including BlackRock, Legg Mason, Henderson Rowe, Invesco and WisdomTree all operate smart beta funds.
Common factor based smart beta types revolve around the following ideas for optimization (source: FTSE):[citation needed]