Adoption of smart beta has spread to over half of asset owners globally, according to a new survey of allocators by FTSE Russell. Out of 178 retirement plans, endowments, foundations, and other institutions polled by the index provider, 58 percent said they had allocations to smart beta strategies, up from 48 percent last year. Another 20 percent said they were currently evaluating or planned to evaluate adding smart beta to their portfolios. Smart beta — defined by FTSE Russell as any index-based strategy that is not weighted by market capitalization — has nearly doubled in popularity since the survey’s debut in 2014, when 32 percent of respondents reported smart beta allocations. Smart beta strategies utilized by survey respondents included funds tied to investment factors like low-volatility, value, and momentum, as well as equal-weighted and fundamentally weighted indexes.