Portfolio management spans a large and varied investment ecosystem. In 2024, investment advisers managed $144.6 trillion in assets for 68.4 million clients, while registered funds held $31,896 billion in mutual fund, ETF, and closed-end fund net assets at year-end. These figures describe different parts of the market and measurement frameworks, so they should not be added together.
Contents
- Adviser industry scale
- Adviser size and staffing
- Client profiles and business models
- Registered funds and portfolio assets
- ETFs, money market funds, and private-fund exposure
- Sector and thematic portfolio choices
Adviser industry scale
The Investment Adviser Association Industry Statistics counted 15,870 investment advisers in 2024. Those advisers served 68.4 million clients and managed $144.6 trillion in assets under management (AUM). The same source reported 1,032,455 non-clerical employees at advisers in 2024.
These measures show the breadth of portfolio management as a business: the industry includes the firms making investment decisions, the clients receiving advice or management, the assets managed on their behalf, and the workforce supporting research, trading, operations, compliance, and client service. The figures are industry totals for 2024, not an average firm profile.
The client count also covers a broad set of relationships. It should not be read as 68.4 million separate investment portfolios or as a count of individuals only. Adviser-client structures can include individuals, pooled vehicles, and institutional relationships, and the business-model statistics below show how materially those categories can differ.
The adviser industry is also concentrated among smaller firms by reported asset and employee measures. In 2024, 92.7% of advisers employed 100 or fewer employees, according to the Investment Adviser Association Industry Statistics. In the same year, 68.5% managed less than $1 billion in assets, while 87.7% managed less than $5 billion.
Adviser size and staffing
The distribution of adviser firms matters when interpreting industry averages. A market with many small advisers can produce a very different typical operating profile from one dominated by a few large managers. The 2024 figures indicate that most advisers were below the $1 billion and $5 billion AUM thresholds, even though the industry-wide AUM total was extremely large.
The Investment Adviser Association Snapshot 2024 provides more detail for selected client-profile groups, using 2023 averages unless noted otherwise. Advisers focused on individuals averaged 8 employees in 2023. Advisers serving both individuals and institutions averaged 152 employees, while pooled-vehicle-focused advisers averaged 46 employees.
The largest average staffing figure in the snapshot belonged to advisers with pooled vehicle clients and more than 10 institutional clients: 250 employees in 2023. This group also averaged 16 offices. Advisers serving individuals and institutions averaged 43 offices, compared with 2 offices for pooled-vehicle-focused advisers.
| Adviser profile | Average AUM | Average employees | Average offices | Measurement period |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focused on individuals | $393 million | 8 | Not stated | AUM: 2024; employees: 2023 |
| Pooled-vehicle-focused | $8.0 billion | 46 | 2 | 2023 |
| Individuals and institutions | $5.5 billion | 152 | 43 | 2023 |
| Pooled vehicles and more than 10 institutional clients | $53.6 billion | 250 | 16 | 2023 |
The table compares averages across differently defined groups, not mutually exclusive size bands. The averages therefore illustrate operating patterns rather than a ranking of every adviser. In particular, the $393 million AUM figure for advisers focused on individuals is measured in 2024, while the other AUM figures in the table are 2023 snapshot averages.
Client profiles and business models
Adviser business models vary substantially by client mix. Advisers focused on individuals represented 33.8% of advisers in the Investment Adviser Association Snapshot 2024. The same snapshot reported that 56.1% of advisers served non-high-net-worth individuals in 2023. Across the four main client-profile categories, 90.5% of advisers fell into one of those categories in 2023.
The pooled-vehicle-and-institutional segment had a notably broad relationship base on average. In 2023, advisers with pooled vehicle clients and more than 10 institutional clients averaged 12,401 individual clients, 48 pooled vehicle clients, and 885 institutional clients. Their average AUM was $53.6 billion.
The individuals-and-institutions group averaged 10,701 individual clients and 618 institutional clients in 2023. Its average AUM was $5.5 billion, and its average staffing was 152 employees. These figures suggest a business model that combines a substantial individual-client operation with institutional relationships, although the averages do not describe how assets were divided between those client types.
Pooled-vehicle-focused advisers presented a different pattern. They averaged 3 individual clients, 12 pooled vehicle clients, and 1 institutional client in 2023. Their average AUM was $8.0 billion, with 46 employees and 2 offices. The small individual-client average is consistent with the group’s focus, but the statistic should not be interpreted as a statement about every pooled-vehicle-focused adviser.
The Investment Adviser Association Snapshot 2024 also reported 8 average employees for advisers focused on individuals and 33.8% of advisers in that profile. Its group-level figures are best used to understand the range of portfolio-management operating models: some firms organize around many individual relationships, while others manage larger pools of capital through pooled vehicles or institutional mandates.
Registered funds and portfolio assets
Registered funds provide another lens on portfolio management scale. When the SEC launched Registered Fund Statistics in April 2024, SEC staff said SEC-registered funds held more than $26 trillion in total net assets. The registered-fund universe covered more than 12,000 mutual funds, ETFs, closed-end funds, and other registered funds at that time.
The SEC later reported that mutual funds, ETFs, and closed-end funds held $31,896 billion in net assets at the end of December 2024. ETFs accounted for $10,012 billion of that amount, while money market funds held $7,754 billion in net assets at the end of December 2024. These are category-specific totals and should be kept distinct from the broader adviser AUM measure.
The relevant source labels are the SEC Staff Publishes New Registered Fund Statistics Report for the April 2024 launch figures and SEC remarks before the Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management for the December 2024 figures. The SEC remarks identify the SEC’s Registered Fund Statistics report for mutual fund, ETF, and closed-end fund net assets, and the SEC’s Money Market Fund Statistics report for April 2025 as the source cited for December 2024 money-market net assets.
The number of funds is also important for portfolio choice. The April 2024 registered-fund universe included more than 12,000 funds across the stated categories. That breadth means aggregate assets and fund counts answer different questions: assets indicate the scale of capital managed, while the count indicates the range of registered investment vehicles available to investors.
ETFs, money market funds, and private-fund exposure
ETF assets have become a major component of registered investment-company assets. In SEC remarks before the Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management, ETFs were described as accounting for approximately 25% of investment companies’ net assets in 2025. The same remarks said ETF assets had nearly doubled after the 2019 ETF rule, by the SEC’s account.
At the end of December 2024, ETFs held $10,012 billion within the $31,896 billion in mutual fund, ETF, and closed-end fund net assets reported by the SEC. The figures are stated for a particular reporting period and category definition; the 2025 approximately 25% statement is a separate SEC characterization and is not used here to recalculate the December 2024 share.
Money market funds represented another large pool, with $7,754 billion in net assets at the end of December 2024. Money market funds are included in the broader registered-fund landscape, but their reported assets should not be casually combined with the ETF figure because fund categories can overlap in broader statistical universes and the cited measures use specific reporting definitions.
Registered investment companies also reported $96 billion in private-fund holdings at the end of December 2024, according to the SEC remarks. Those holdings were up $59 billion, or more than 150%, versus December 2019. This is a measure of registered investment companies’ holdings of private funds, not the total size of the private-fund industry.
The SEC’s historical comparison placed the investment-company industry at only about $2 billion in assets in 1940, with about $1 billion of that total held by registered funds. The 1940 figures are historical statements attributed to the SEC remarks and are not presented as a modern measurement or independently verified estimate.
Sector and thematic portfolio choices
Portfolio management statistics also show how investment products have diversified by strategy and theme. The number of equity funds classified as sector funds rose 100% from 2000 to 2024, according to SEC remarks before the Conference on Emerging Trends in Asset Management. The count was 390 sector equity mutual funds and ETFs in 2000 and 781 in 2024.
The two counts provide the underlying comparison for the reported change: 781 sector equity mutual funds and ETFs in 2024 versus 390 in 2000. They describe fund classifications, not the performance of sector strategies or the amount of money invested in each sector.
Thematic funds added another layer of product specialization. Morningstar categorized over 300 domestic funds as thematic funds in 2025, and those funds spanned over 130 separate subthemes. The SEC remarks cited these Morningstar classifications to illustrate the breadth of thematic investing.
Sector and thematic counts should therefore be read as measures of product availability and classification, not as evidence that one strategy is superior. The figures also do not provide a return, risk, fee, or investor-flow comparison. They show that the portfolio-management marketplace contains a growing variety of ways to organize exposure, alongside the large adviser, registered-fund, ETF, and money-market pools measured above.