Asset managers headed for increasingly lean years, study says

Profitability at asset managers has slipped for the past two years and is likely to decline further through 2028 as investors increasingly opt for products with lower fees, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to a new study. The study of 40 global asset managers including BlackRock, State Street, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs by German financial strategy advisor zeb Consulting showed their profits in 2023 slipped to 8.2 basis points (0.082%) of assets under management from 10.1 basis points in 2021 and 9.4 points in 2022. Over the past five years, the assets under management of the firms studied have risen by 8.8% annually on average, but their operating profits have only gone up by 0.7% per annum, it said.