Passive investing has gained in popularity in recent years, given increased global market volatility and uncertain economic conditions.

Along with this the passive investment industry has evolved, with smart beta, factor investing and enhanced indexing.

Enhanced indexing, sometimes called smart beta or alternatively weighted index investing, is predominantly a passive index tracking strategy, either through a tracker fund or an exchange traded fund (ETFs) with an added element of active management.

This guide aims to explain how enhanced indexing works, what are the pros and cons of enhanced indexing, and how to use it within a portfolio.

Contributors of content to this guide: Martin Weithofer, head of strategic beta at Deutsche Asset Management; Amanda Rebello, head of passive distribution, UK and Ireland at Deutsche Asset Management; Alan Beaney, investment director, at RC Brown; Urs Raebsamen, senior equity strategist at UBS Asset Management; Shakhista Mukhamedova, structured and passive investments analyst at Brewin Dolphin; Vincent Denoiseux, ETF quantitative strategist at Deutsche Asset Management; Nizam Hamid, head of ETF strategy at WisdomTree in Europe; Bamford, managing director of Informed Choice; Darius McDermott, managing director at Chelsea Financial Services; Bryon Lake, head of Invesco PowerShares for the EMEA region.