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Key takeaways
- North American asset manager AUM to reach US$111 trillion by 2030, accounting for more than half of global assets under management.
- 15 of the world’s top 20 asset managers by AuM are based in the US, up from 12 in 2009.
North American (US and Canada) asset and wealth managers aren’t playing the same game as their European or Asia-Pacific (APAC) counterparts.
Europe and APAC are moving toward the point North America has already reached—higher penetration, deeper retail participation, and more mature private markets—though they still have some way to go.
But the global dominance of North American asset and wealth management (AWM) is no cause for complacency. Rather, it’s a reason to think differently about where the next unit of profitable growth is going to come from. Going from 57.8% penetration to 59.7% is a fundamentally different challenge than increasing penetration from a lower base. The tailwind of rising markets and demographic accumulation is now largely priced in.
The AWM firms that try to replicate the asset-gathering playbook that worked in the 2010s will find themselves competing hard for diminishing returns. Future growth means taking share or building entirely new revenue lines, both of which are challenging.
The result will be a sharper divide between the front-runners and the trailing pack. Sustaining profitable growth, as opposed to just assets under management (AuM) accumulation, is going to require crystal clear strategic focus and a marked step-up in capabilities. It’s also going to require a massive acceleration in tech-powered transformation, including the harnessing of tokenization and AI for client-focused innovation and differentiation.
Drawing on industry perspectives, market projections, and our analysis of the strategies that are and aren’t succeeding, this North America edition of our Asset and Wealth Management Revolution series sets out the implications of the forces driving change and six imperatives for coming out in front.
Snapshot
By most traditional measures, the AWM industry in North America (US and Canada) is racing ahead. But traditional measures don’t tell the full story.
But beneath the headline growth, a more complicated and challenging picture emerges.
Sizing the prize
There’s no doubting the potential. Growth in North American AuM has continued to outperform APAC and Europe. North American AuM is on track to reach US$111 trillion by 2030 at a CAGR of 6.2%.
Alternative investments are set to reach US$19.9 trillion by 2030 (CAGR of 7.6%), cementing their position as the AWM industry’s primary growth engine and the most important strategic battleground.
ETFs in North America are set to grow at an 11.2% CAGR between now and 2030, significantly outpacing mutual funds (projected 6.6% CAGR).
But this is also a market in which lines between products are becoming increasingly blurred. The rapid growth in active ETFs is a clear and telling case in point. More than 80% of new ETF launches in the US in 2025 were active ETFs. In turn, the opportunity to include both mutual fund and ETF share classes within the same investment fund allows mutual fund managers to enter the ETF market at scale. The advantages for mutual fund managers include being able to leverage their active expertise without the need to convert the fund to an ETF.
Up to US$112 billion in new revenues will be up for grabs by 2030. Private markets are the standout growth story: by 2030 they will account for more than half of North America’s AWM revenues.
Boosting global market share
In North America, AWM firms managed 57.8% of client assets in 2024. In Europe (39.7% in 2024) and APAC (21.7%), penetration rates are much lower—representing significant ‘white space’ potential.
But capturing that Europe/APAC white space opportunity requires far more than an extension of what North American managers already do. Each market comes with its own distinctive regulatory requirements, investor expectations, and distribution dynamics. Building real traction in any of them typically requires local partnerships, locally-adapted product design, and in many cases local acquisition.
The most practical response is a modular product architecture: standardized investment building blocks with a local overlay that adapts the risk profile, regulatory wrapper, and distribution structure to each market’s specific conditions.
No time to stand still
With both AuM and revenues rising, it would be tempting to think it’s all plain sailing ahead. But the reality is very different.
Some asset and wealth managers are in a far better position to reap the dividends than others. The lion’s share of new revenues could be scooped up by the front-runners, leaving a trailing pack to fight over legacy business crumbs.
Current strengths—whether based on scale, asset accumulation, or longstanding relationships—no longer guarantee future success in an AWM market undergoing a deep-seated structural reset.
Five structural forces are reshaping the industry simultaneously. They don’t operate in isolation, and they don’t map neatly onto individual strategic responses. They cut across every decision your business faces. The six imperatives that follow are your roadmap for navigating all of them.
The forces reshaping the industry
All five structural shifts below are driving the imperatives set out in this report. They don’t map one-to-one to any single imperative—they cut across all of them.
Earning the right to win
If asset gathering can no longer deliver profitable growth on its own, what does it take to succeed? Drawing on our survey findings, analysis of the North American market, and work with a range of AWM firms, six pressing imperatives stand out.
Think of these as a journey plan. The first imperative—choosing your strategic archetype—is the essential starting point. Once you’ve committed to a path, imperatives two through to six are what you need in your backpack to execute it successfully: managing private markets competition, capturing the wealth transfer opportunity, deploying technology decisively, making acquisitions that build differentiated capabilities rather than bulk, and earning trust throughout.
None of these can be treated in isolation. The forces reshaping the industry run through all of them.
Imperative One Choose your path: hypermarket, solution platform, ultra-efficient manufacturer, or niche champion
Imperative Two Transform to compete in retailized private markets
The retailization of private markets
The democratization and retailization of private markets open up huge new investment pools, either directly or in collaboration with partners. But they also heighten competition, scrutiny, and the need to establish first-mover advantage.
Meeting the demands of retail and retirement markets requires a shift in value proposition—from exclusive access and return outperformance to asset diversification, income generation, and the delivery of customized client outcomes.
Key features of a retail-friendly strategy include building or acquiring capability in semi-liquid structures suited to 401(k) and mass-affluent investor markets, including collective investment trusts and target date funds. Each structure carries different liquidity terms, investor protections, and regulatory treatment, underlining the need to embed relevant capabilities at both product and operational levels.
With your business in the spotlight, approach redemption fulfillment ratios and liquidity management transparency as competitive differentiators—not just risk metrics. Institutional allocators are elevating liquidity management to a core due diligence criterion. Evergreen funds provide an increasingly attractive bridge between closed- and open-end structures by allowing periodic redemption.
On private credit: what we’re seeing isn’t a sudden deterioration in borrower fundamentals, but a stress test of liquidity design, underwriting discipline, and portfolio monitoring in a subset of newer structures. Investors aren’t abandoning private credit—they’re refocusing on managers best equipped to handle volatility and deliver at scale.
Imperative Three Lead the great wealth transfer or lose assets to faster-moving competitors
The great wealth transfer
With nearly a third (31%) of Americans expecting to receive an inheritance within five years—rising to 55% of Millennials—the great wealth transfer is already underway, as is the race to connect with the new generation of investors coming into the market.
Wealth managers can’t assume that beneficiaries will stick with their parents’ advisors—or that they’ll use a human advisor at all. Over 40% of Gen Z and Millennials prefer AI assistants to manage investments, compared to just 14% of baby-boomers. Wealth managers’ ability to connect with younger investors could be further hampered by their rapidly aging client-facing workforce.
This underlines the importance of reaching out to next-generation family members now rather than waiting. Digital advisory and service models should complement rather than replace human relationships: technology delivers clarity and control for digital-native clients, while human advisors act as trusted partners for complex decisions. A total portfolio view—allowing clients to assess and manage all their investments in one location—is a key feature.
From an investment perspective, the key priority is creating product lines that align with the values of younger investors—without compromising fiduciary standards or financial performance.
Imperative Four Embed transformative tech as a competitive differentiator, not a pilot program
Transformative tech
As the race to modernize operations and reinvent business models gathers pace, the front-runners are embedding transformative tech right through the value chain and securing the pay-off. Others are struggling to move beyond pilots. The gap is starting to show up in performance and competitiveness—and could quickly become unbridgeable without an acceleration in the speed and scale of transformation.
The competitive stakes underline the need to shift from cost reduction to client-focused innovation and differentiation.
Build tech-powered capabilities—talent as well as technology—that span portfolio performance, client engagement, and operations. A portfolio of isolated use cases will not deliver compounding returns.
Assess which asset classes or distribution channels are ripe for tokenization, identify the platform and custody infrastructure required, then build the investor education and engagement to bring clients along.
Partner with hyperscalers and fintechs to modernize infrastructure at pace and scale—avoiding the need to build proprietary technology for capabilities that aren’t a source of differentiation.
Imperative Five Acquire to differentiate: harness strategic M&A to build capability, not just scale
Embracing strategic acquisition can accelerate growth, enhance capabilities, and secure distribution access. But the biggest value potential centers on deals that deliver genuine capability—in private markets, in technology, or in distribution—rather than simply adding AuM. Shareholders and limited partners will reward transformation, not scale for its own sake.
The acquisition of smaller players—many of them wealth managers, private markets managers, or fintechs with their own distinctive cultures—underlines the need to think differently about integration and assimilation. The risk is losing client relationships or stifling innovation as acquired firms are absorbed into larger groups.
For niche champions, partnership is the more appropriate lever. Niche expertise without distribution reach is a ceiling, not a competitive advantage.
The acquisition of general partner stakes reached record levels in 2025 and these look set to be a key deal target in 2026 and beyond. Many founders are seeking liquidity without losing control; stake sales often fund growth or diversification into new asset classes or distribution channels.
Imperative Six Build transparency and trust as key sources of credibility and differentiation
Intensifying scrutiny
Cutting across all these imperatives is the need to build credibility and trust. With faith in institutions declining, trust is difficult to build and easily lost.
This imperative isn’t a standalone checkbox. Trust is a strategic asset and differentiator, under which holds the key to accelerating all the other imperatives.
Investors are screening fee structures more intensely. They expect timely, structured reporting and a clear statement of the risks they face. Lead your client reporting with risk-adjusted value rather than return performance. Build macro and systemic risk into portfolio construction and client communication.
Approach valuation discipline as a competitive differentiator, not just a compliance requirement. As regulatory scrutiny of private markets intensifies, rigorous, defensible, and independently verifiable valuation frameworks will strengthen credibility with both regulators and allocators.
With clients consolidating relationships, position your business as a trusted total portfolio orchestrator. Owning the client interface—and the data flowing through it—will enable you to strengthen client outcomes and drive innovation.
Out in front or marginalized? The choices you make now will decide
In this report, we’ve set out the pressing imperatives needed to outpace and outperform your competitors.
The AWM firms out in front are clear about where and how to compete. This strategic clarity is enabling them to target investment where it can make a decisive difference and reinforce their right to win.
The big question for your organization is whether you have the same level of clarity and confidence in your business model and the capabilities needed to deliver it.
As the AWM industry is transformed and old assumptions disappear, the strategic choices and actions you make now will determine how much of the US$112 billion revenue prize you’ll be able to share.
The opportunities are vast. But the time to act is now rather than waiting. Putting off difficult decisions or hedging your bets could leave you struggling to attract the new investors coming into the market and compete for the most profitable lines of business.
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