Last year, the assets managed by the biggest 500 fund managers in the world increased by over 2%, hitting US$78.1 trillion, compared with US$76.4 trillion in 2013.
That means money managers worldwide have added almost US$30 trillion since 2004.
These are the findings of the Towers Watson World 500 research.
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“For the first time we have observed asset growth at the very large and smaller ends of the size spectrum, but not much in the middle,” says Luba Nikulina, global head of research at Towers Watson Investment. “The big passive houses are the beneficiaries at the large end, while smaller managers are attracting a greater proportion of active mandates as they ‘resource up’ and become more competitive.”
The research also shows that traditional assets make up almost 80% of reported assets—45% in stocks and 34% in fixed income. That’s an increase of about 12% from the previous year.
Additionally, the study reveals that in the past decade, the number of independently owned money management firms in the top 20 has more than doubled. This number is now larger than the number of firms owned by banks and insurers, whose ownership has declined in the same period.
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And in 2014, 11 of the money managers in the top 20 were based in the U.S., accounting for nearly two-thirds of all assets. The remaining managers in the top 20 were based in Europe.