{ "@context": { "@vocab": "http://schema.org/", "bcg": "https://bcg.com/schema#", "ex": "http://example.org/schema#" }, "@type": "Report", "headline": "An Imperative for Growth", "alternativeHeadline": "Global Asset Management Report 2026, 24th Edition", "datePublished": "2026-04", "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Renaud Fages", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "fages.renaud@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Johannes Burkhardt", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "burkhardt.johannes@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Edoardo Palmisani", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "palmisani.edoardo@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Joppe Bijlsma", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "bijlsma.joppe@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Peter Czerepak", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "czerepak.peter@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Egler", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "egler.matthias@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Dean Frankle", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "frankle.dean@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kwonyoung Jang", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "jang.kwonyoung@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Mayank Jha", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "jha.mayank@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Katsuyoshi Kurihara", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "kurihara.katsuyoshi@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kedra Newsom Reeves", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "newsom.kedra@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Neil Pardasani", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "pardasani.neil@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Maël Robin", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "robin.mael@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Rudolph", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "rudolph.george@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Philippe Soussan", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "soussan.philippe@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Matt Sweeny", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "sweeny.matt@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tjun Tang", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "tang.tjun@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Charles-Antoine Wallaert", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "wallaert.charles-antoine@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "André Xavier", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "xavier.andre@bcg.com" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivana Zupa", "affiliation": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group" }, "email": "zupa.ivana@bcg.com" } ], "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "Boston Consulting Group", "url": "https://bcg.com", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://bcg.com/logo.png" } }, "hasPart": [ { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The New Economics of Asset Management", "articleSection": [ "Growth Formula Under Pressure", "Sources of Growth Are Shifting", "Capturing Growth Is More Complex" ], "articleBody": "Global assets under management reached $147 trillion in 2025, up 11% year over year. More than 80% of gross revenue growth was driven by market appreciation. Growth sources are shifting toward retail investors and geographic diversification, with Asia-Pacific growing fastest. Capturing growth is more complex with flows concentrated among fewer firms in private markets and more competitive active and passive markets.", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "DefinedTermSet", "name": "Key Terms in Asset Management Economics", "hasDefinedTerm": [ { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Assets under Management (AuM)", "description": "The total market value of assets that an investment company manages on behalf of investors." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Net Flows", "description": "The net amount of money moving into or out of investment funds." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Passive Funds", "description": "Investment funds that track a market index rather than actively selecting securities." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Active Funds", "description": "Investment funds where managers actively select securities to outperform the market." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Private Credit", "description": "Non-publicly traded debt investments, often distributed through insurance channels." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Defined Contribution (DC) Plans", "description": "Retirement plans where contributions are defined but benefits depend on investment performance." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Defined Benefit (DB) Plans", "description": "Retirement plans where benefits are defined and guaranteed." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Old-Age Dependency Ratio", "description": "Ratio of people over 65 years old versus those 15–64 years old." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "Tokenization", "description": "The process of converting real-world assets into digital tokens on a blockchain." }, { "@type": "DefinedTerm", "name": "AI-First Model", "description": "An operating model where artificial intelligence is embedded as the foundation of investment, distribution, and operations." } ] }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is driving the growth in global assets under management?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "More than 80% of gross revenue growth in 2025 was driven by market appreciation, with retail investors and geographic diversification also contributing." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How is the retirement system transformation affecting asset management?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Retirement systems are shifting from defined benefit to defined contribution plans, increasing the number of individual accounts and raising customer acquisition costs." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What role do insurers play in private credit distribution?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Insurers act as institutional allocators and retail distribution wrappers, partnering with asset managers to access private credit at scale." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is the impact of AI on asset management?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "AI compresses information and cost advantages, enables non-linear scalability, transforms retail distribution, and can reduce costs by 25% to 35% over 3-5 years." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is tokenization and why is it important?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Tokenization converts real-world assets into digital tokens, enabling instant settlement, programmability, and fractionalized cross-border access, potentially reshaping investment management." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How should asset managers approach distribution?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "They should build a systematic distribution engine, segment clients precisely, align coverage to opportunity, embed AI to scale reach, and integrate into client value chains." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the key pillars of an effective distribution model?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Segmentation and targeting, coverage model and role design, sales motion and governance, and data infrastructure and tools." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How does AI act as a force multiplier in distribution?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "AI enables ongoing opportunity mapping, dynamic coverage rebalancing, faster preparation, targeted client engagement, and scalable coverage of smaller accounts." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the imperatives for building an AI-first asset management model?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Be bold with structural redesign, focus on transformative programs with clear P&L impact, and go deep by rewiring business bottom-up embedding AI into workflows." } } ] }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Distribution Is the New Source of Advantage in Asset Management", "articleBody": "Distribution models are becoming the key competitive moat as product manufacturing commoditizes. Asset and wealth management are converging, with ownership of client relationships defining advantage. Most firms lack scalable, instrumented distribution models, requiring redesign around a distribution engine supported by AI.", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowTo", "name": "Developing an Effective Distribution Model", "step": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Segmentation and Targeting", "text": "Manage client portfolio with discipline, segment by size, influence, and ability to shape portfolio construction and advisory workflows." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Coverage Model and Role Design", "text": "Allocate coverage based on opportunity, concentrate senior time on high-value accounts, create small-client desks, and embed specialist overlays." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Sales Motion and Governance", "text": "Run sales as a managed system with clear ownership, cadence, KPIs, incentives, and embed research and portfolio support into client workflows." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 4, "name": "Data Infrastructure and Tools", "text": "Use cloud-based CRM integrated with market intelligence, real-time analytics, and clean data foundation to enable AI-driven targeting and execution." } ] } ] }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Rebuilding Asset Management for an AI-First World", "articleBody": "AI-first models expand analytical capacity, lower personalization costs, and scale operations with fewer constraints, fundamentally changing competition.", "hasPart": [ { "@type": "HowTo", "name": "Navigating to the AI-First State", "step": [ { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 1, "name": "Redesign the Operating Model", "text": "Update processes end-to-end, reduce layers and redundant reviews, rebuild workflows around agentic AI and cross-functional teams, embed governance." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 2, "name": "Establish AI Agents and Systems", "text": "Prioritize scalable agentic architecture, invest in agents with context, tooling, memory, governance, and design for continuous improvement." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 3, "name": "Build the Skill Premium", "text": "Recruit AI-fluent leaders, embed AI literacy in hiring and promotion, and upskill workforce in human-agent collaboration." }, { "@type": "HowToStep", "position": 4, "name": "Hardwire Transformation into Governance and Incentives", "text": "Lead AI transformation from the top, tie incentives to measurable AI outcomes, and sequence transformation starting with high-impact areas." } ] } ] } ], "image": "cid:page1-image", "description": "The 24th edition of the Global Asset Management Report by Boston Consulting Group, April 2026, analyzing the imperative for growth in asset management through new economics, distribution, and AI-first transformation.", "mainEntity": { "@type": "CreativeWork", "name": "Global Asset Management Report 2026", "url": "https://bcg.com/reports/global-asset-management-2026" } }