Asset management spans regulated advisers, institutional investors, retail funds, pooled vehicles, and large global managers. The statistics below combine SEC data for 2023, company reporting for 2024, industry research, and forecasts whose measurement periods are stated with each figure.
Contents
- U.S. adviser market
- U.S. assets and clients
- Large-manager operating scale
- Global industry size and regional structure
- Growth, profitability, and private markets
- Technology and strategic change
U.S. adviser market
The SEC reported 15,441 SEC-registered investment advisers in 2023. Its broader count was 21,203 total registered investment advisers and exempt reporting advisers (RIAs and ERAs). The same December 2023 SEC Investment Adviser Statistics reported 5,762 total ERAs, including 3,106 ERA LLCs.
The market included 13,548 large advisory firms, 452 mid-size advisory firms, 250 internet advisers, 104 multi-state advisers, and 72 advisers to business development companies. The SEC also reported 468 small-entity RIAs. These categories describe different classifications and should not be added together as a single firm count.
The legal structures reported for RIAs included 9,614 limited liability companies, 3,972 corporations, and 1,314 limited partnerships. Together, these figures show how strongly the RIA population is organized around LLCs, while also documenting substantial corporate and partnership populations.
The SEC reported approximately $128.8 trillion in total regulatory assets under management (RAUM) in 2023. Discretionary RAUM was $117.8 trillion and non-discretionary RAUM was $11.1 trillion. The geographic split was $98.6 trillion of U.S. RAUM and $30.3 trillion of non-U.S. RAUM. These are SEC-reported 2023 measurements, not a current-year estimate.
RIA scale distribution
The SEC reported that 28.6% of aggregate RIA RAUM was in the $1 trillion-or-more bin in 2023. By firm count, 58.0% of RIAs were in the $100 million to $1 billion RAUM bin, while 11.1% were under $100 million. The two percentages describe different dimensions: one is a share of assets and the other is a share of advisers.
U.S. assets and clients
Investment company clients accounted for $43.5 trillion of 2023 RIA RAUM, according to the SEC Investment Adviser Statistics. Other pooled vehicles accounted for $35.7 trillion. High-net-worth individual clients represented $12.9 trillion, while non-high-net-worth individuals represented $7.2 trillion.
The remaining client categories were also material. Insurance companies represented $7.5 trillion of RIA RAUM, pension plans $7.4 trillion, and state and municipal entities $4.2 trillion. Corporations accounted for $2.9 trillion, foreign institutions $1.8 trillion, charities $1.7 trillion, other advisers $1.6 trillion, other clients $1.3 trillion, and banking institutions $0.8 trillion.
The SEC’s client counts provide another view of the market. In 2023, advisers reported 46.511 million non-high-net-worth individual clients and 7.962 million high-net-worth individual clients. Pension plan clients numbered 0.647 million, corporate clients 0.334 million, charity clients 0.167 million, and other pooled vehicle clients 0.100 million.
Smaller reported client categories included 0.023 million investment company clients, 0.015 million insurance company clients, and 0.003 million foreign institution clients. Asset totals and client counts should be read separately: a category with fewer clients can still represent a large amount of RAUM.
Large-manager operating scale
Company disclosures illustrate how concentrated operating scale can look at individual firms. BlackRock reported $11.551 trillion of total assets under management at December 31, 2024, along with $641 billion of 2024 net inflows. Its 2024 revenue was $20.407 billion, adjusted net income was $6.612 billion, adjusted diluted earnings per share was $43.61, and adjusted operating margin was 44.5%.
| Reported measure | BlackRock | State Street |
|---|---|---|
| Assets under management | $11.551 trillion, Dec. 31, 2024 | $4.7 trillion, year-end 2024 |
| Other reported asset measure | — | $46.6 trillion AUC/A, year-end 2024 |
| 2024 net inflows | $641 billion | $109 billion ETF net inflows |
| 2024 workforce or reach | — | 53,000+ employees; 100+ markets |
BlackRock’s reported business-line figures included $4.230 trillion in ETF AUM, $920.663 billion in cash-management AUM, and $211.974 billion in private-markets AUM at December 31, 2024. Long-term assets reached $10.630588 trillion. By client and strategy grouping, BlackRock reported $1.015827 trillion in retail AUM, $2.136749 trillion in institutional active AUM, and $3.247637 trillion in institutional index AUM.
By asset class, BlackRock reported $6.310191 trillion in long-term equity AUM, $2.905669 trillion in long-term fixed-income AUM, $992.921 billion in long-term multi-asset AUM, and $421.807 billion in total alternatives AUM at the same date. Its fourth-quarter 2024 reporting also said $281.416 billion of total net inflows were generated in the quarter; 37% came from ETFs and 46% from institutional clients. The release disclosed a $4.417 trillion securities-lending revenue-base AUM figure.
State Street reported $46.6 trillion of assets under custody and/or administration (AUC/A) and $4.7 trillion of AUM at year-end 2024. Its annual report reported $8.67 of diluted EPS excluding notable items, $109 billion of full-year ETF net inflows, and $2.3 trillion of new AUC/A business wins. State Street said it was the fourth-largest asset manager globally in 2024 and operated in more than 100 markets with more than 53,000 employees.
State Street Global Advisors reported $146 billion of net new assets in 2024 and more than 3% organic AUM growth for the second consecutive year. It launched more than 90 products worldwide. State Street Alpha had 35 total clients and 25 live clients at year-end 2024, and contributed to half of State Street’s AUC/A wins. State Street also reported 11% growth in FX trading-services revenue, $639 million of front-office software and data revenue, and a 97% servicing-fee revenue-retention target.
Global industry size and regional structure
BCG reported that global assets under management reached $128 trillion in 2024, up 12% during the year. BCG also said more than 70% of the industry’s $58 billion in 2024 revenue growth came from market performance. That attribution matters when interpreting growth: asset values can rise because markets appreciate, because investors add money, or because both occur.
EFAMA reported that the European investment management industry managed around EUR 33 trillion of assets. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, the sector included 68,000 UCITS funds, 37,000 alternative investment funds, and 31,000 institutional investors. EFAMA also reported more than 4,600 asset management companies.
Institutional ownership dominated European fund net assets at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024, accounting for 69%. Retail investors held the remaining 31% reported by EFAMA. These figures describe ownership of fund net assets, not the proportion of European households investing directly or the number of fund accounts.
Growth, profitability, and private markets
PwC’s 2024 Asset & Wealth Management Report projected global AUM would reach $171 trillion by 2028. It projected alternatives AUM of $27.6 trillion by 2028 and tokenised investment funds above $317 billion by the same year. These are forecasts, not observed 2028 outcomes.
PwC’s survey found that 81% of asset and wealth managers were contemplating strategic partnerships, consolidations, or mergers and acquisitions. The report also found that 73% viewed artificial intelligence as the most transformational technology over the next two to three years. In the same survey, 80% said disruptive technologies would fuel revenue growth, 84% said they would improve operational efficiency, and 72% said they would improve employee productivity.
The technology investment figures show a constraint alongside the optimism. PwC found that 68% of asset and wealth management organizations allocated less than one-sixth of capital to innovative technologies. It also found that 59% of institutional investors thought disruptive technology could reduce reliance on asset managers, while 30% of asset managers said they lacked relevant skills and talent.
PwC’s 2025 Global Asset & Wealth Management Report projected global AuM would rise from $139 trillion in 2024 to $200 trillion by 2030. It projected private-market revenues would reach $432.2 billion by 2030 and total investable wealth would exceed $481 trillion. The report said 89% of asset managers had experienced profitability pressure over the previous five years and that profit per AuM was down 19% since 2018.
The same 2025 report projected tokenised fund AuM would grow from about $90 billion in 2024 to $715 billion by 2030. It projected passive AuM would rise at a 10% compound annual growth rate to $70 trillion by 2030. PwC also reported that only 42% of firms fit one of its four winning archetypes at the time of the report. These figures are forward-looking or report-based observations and should not be treated as realized results.
Technology and strategic change
The available survey evidence points to a widening gap between perceived technology impact and organizational readiness. AI was identified as the most transformational technology by 73% of surveyed asset and wealth managers over a two-to-three-year horizon. At the same time, 68% allocated less than one-sixth of capital to innovative technologies, and 30% reported a shortage of relevant skills and talent.
The expected effects were broad rather than limited to investment research. Disruptive technologies were expected by 80% of respondents to fuel revenue growth, by 84% to improve operational efficiency, and by 72% to improve employee productivity. Yet 59% of institutional investors believed such technology could reduce reliance on asset managers, creating a strategic tension between efficiency gains and the role of the intermediary.
Product structure is changing alongside technology. BlackRock reported $4.230 trillion in ETF AUM at the end of 2024, while State Street reported $109 billion of ETF net inflows during 2024. PwC’s forecasts also place passive investing and tokenised funds among the major areas of projected expansion, with passive AuM forecast at $70 trillion and tokenised fund AuM at $715 billion by 2030. Those amounts remain estimates and forecasts tied to the cited PwC reporting periods.
The figures collectively describe an industry with very large regulated asset pools, millions of individual clients, significant institutional ownership, and substantial differences between AUM and custody or administration measures. They also show why any comparison should identify the reporting entity, metric, geography, measurement date, and whether the number is historical, estimated, or forecast.