Financial advisers are more open to using exchange-traded funds than they were just a few years ago, a new survey found.

Advisers are placing more of their clients' assets in ETFs, showing a willingness to adopt ETFs with shorter track records, and looking for funds that use newer types of strategies, such as active management and "strategic beta," the annual survey by ETF.com, a San Francisco-based ETF researcher, and Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., a global financial-services firm that handles ETF custody and administration, found.