Direct Indexing for WealthTransforming how wealth managers personalize portfolios.
Personalize portfolios with speed and global reach
Built on decades of index innovation and extensive international equity expertise, our direct indexing solutions enable wealth managers to design personalized, tax-efficient portfolios at scale with operational efficiency. And with our ADR Indexes, you can extend personalization beyond U.S. equities — delivering global diversification without leaving U.S. markets.1
Deliver global diversification through our ADR Indexes that cover roughly 90% of international market constituents2 — and allow you personalize at scale within the U.S. trading system using American depositary receipts (ADRs) through your existing U.S. custodian platforms.
With robust infrastructure to calculate over 250,000 indexes daily3 and over 50 years constructing global indexes, we aim to provide the operational strength wealth managers seek to efficiently meet their clients’ unique needs.
We have been integrating sustainability into indexes since 1990, leveraging insights backed by hundreds of global sustainability and climate analysts to create data-driven solutions.4
Our tax optimization tools balance tax efficiency with tracking error. We offer algorithms designed to enable you to minimize short-term tax exposures while keeping portfolios aligned with the underlying index.
See how a custom-made index is built
Direct indexing enables clients to directly own individual securities as part of a customized, index-linked, separately managed account, rather than a fund. This top-down investment approach aims to capitalize on opportunities created by macroeconomic, geopolitical and technological trends.
At MSCI, you define the criteria — whether related to taxes, sustainability or region — and we deliver the index infrastructure, data and tools to support it. You also can leverage our full toolkit of standard indexes, optimization tools, risk models and reporting.
Global diversification reimagined for wealth
MSCI’s ADR Indexes expand what’s possible for wealth managers — enabling international exposure within direct indexing portfolios without leaving the efficiency of U.S. markets.
Our ADR coverage substantially broadens the global selection for scalable personalization with a wide range of ADR offerings.
The indexes, which capture large- and mid-cap companies from developed and emerging markets, follow the same index construction framework as the MSCI Global Investable Market Indexes, but are expressed entirely through ADRs.
This construction provides global equity representation using U.S.-listed instruments, supporting consistent analysis and evaluation through familiar U.S. market systems and liquidity standards.
How you can use these indexes:
- Create customizable international sleeves
- Apply client-specific tax overlays at scale
- Seek reduced trading costs and complexity
Frequently asked questions
Research and resources
Want to learn how direct indexing can support your wealth business?
Simplify international investing through innovative ADR Indexes
Evaluate and implement global equity strategies within U.S. markets — combining MSCI’s global expertise with operational efficiency and scalability.
1 For indexes that include the MSCI Canada Cross-Listed Index, constituents are represented by U.S. dual-listed securities whose primary listings are part of the MSCI Canada Index.
2 Source: MSCI Research, as represented by the MSCI ACWI Index, as of June 30, 2025.
3 As of June 30, 2025.
4 In 1990, through legacy firm KLD, we launched one of the world’s first socially responsible investing indexes, the MSCI KLD 400 Social Index.