One of the main reasons must be the lack of access to ETFs. The UK retail market is now dominated by platforms who now write over 85 per cent of all retail sales and it is a fact many of these platforms do not have the ability to trade ETFs or alternatively the costs of trading are high.

Those platforms that cannot trade ETFs tend to play down the demand for ETFs, and even try to confuse the market by positioning ETFs as risky, clearly intending to disguise their own shortcomings. No doubt when we see their technology improve these platforms’ line of argument will change.

The other failure is that providers of ETFs themselves have failed to explain ETFs clearly and tend to over-complicate the story rather than simplify it, once again causing confusion where it needn’t exist. As a result they tend to miss the opportunity to get across the advantages that ETFs offer investors.

However, we are beginning to see the first signs that ETFs are catching on with many discretionary fund managers who hold model portfolios on platforms, investing a proportion of their assets in ETFs as well as the traditional Unit Trusts and Oeics.

The granularity ETFs offer to invest in opportunities which other passive instruments, like tracker funds, cannot offer, is obviously a deciding factor at play.

Another factor that is likely to have a huge impact on the uptake of ETFs is the decision taken by some of the huge institutions with household names that dominate the unit trust and Oeic market in the UK to launch their own range of ETFs.

This alone will generate at least interest, if not enthusiasm, in ETFs. The adviser market will surely follow in due course.

Bill Vasilieff is chief executive of Novia Financial