(Image: Bloomberg)
The good news for the fund management industry is that the pool of assets available to oversee climbed almost 16% to a record $94 trillion last year, the fastest pace in almost a decade.
The bad news — at least for those outside the $1 trillion club — is that the world's top 20 firms have increased their market share to an all-time high.
The middle of the industry is being squeezed like never before, according to a report published this week by advisory firm Willis Towers Watson PLC. The elite has increased its market share to 43.3% from 38.3% in the past decade; almost all of those gains came from a corresponding decline in firms ranked 51st to 250th, whose market share slumped to 28.2% from 33.6%.
As a group, the top 20 increased its assets under management by more than 18% to control almost $41 trillion of the total market — and every firm in the club controls at least $1 trillion. In eight of the past 10 years, growth among the top 20 has outpaced that of the 500; the compound annual growth rate for the aristocrats is 4.6% compared with 3.1% for the broader group. And BlackRock Inc., the biggest firm of all, grew its assets by more than a fifth in 2017.
