IPE Top 500 Asset Managers: leading managers outpace the rest in a year of record AUM growth

Global investment managers saw a record increase in assets under management last year, but growth was concentrated among the largest managers, according to IPE’s latest Top 500 Asset Managers study.

IPE’s yearly Top 500 Asset Managers study analyses AUM data collected from over 500 global managers.

This year’s study shows global AUM grew by €18trn (16.2%) in 2024, reaching €129trn.  

The top 25 managers added €10.6trn during 2024, which represents an 18.8% year-on-year increase. Collectively, the top 25 saw a greater absolute increase in assets than the rest of the 500 all together. They added €9.4trn in total, representing a 15.4% increase.

There are now 25 managers managing over €1trn of assets.

The top 10 managers in the Top 500 ranking saw an even larger relative increase in AUM. At the end of last year, they accounted for €46.1trn, up from €38.3trn in 2023 – a 20.4% increase.

The same managers took the top 10 places in the ranking, which saw no changes other than Capital Group overtaking Goldman Sachs Asset Management as the sixth largest manager. The AUM gap between the two companies is less than €33bn.

Last year, BlackRock surpassed the €10trn AUM mark, ending the year with €11.1trn.

Record AUM leap

After recording negative growth at the end of 2022, global AUM has increased for two consecutive years, thanks to rising equity market returns and a favourable interest rates outlook.

The €18trn increase reported by global managers last year is the largest absolute leap in global AUM recorded since 2015, at least, and an increase of 16.2% over the previous year.

The second-largest increase in AUM over the past decade, in absolute terms, occurred between 2021 and 2022, when assets grew by €17.9trn. In percentage terms, last year’s was the third largest increase since 2015, behind 2020 (22.1%) and 2022 (19.7%).

However, as noted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in its 2025 Global Asset Management Report, published in April, “market performance drove 70% of revenue growth in 2024”.

The consultancy stated that the industry’s reliance on market performance for revenue growth underscores its vulnerability to external conditions. This is “especially in a period marked by extreme market volatility, rapid shifts in sentiment, and heightened economic uncertainty arising in part from the disruptive effects of the US tariffs,” said the BCG report. 

Since the start of the year, global managers have shed AUM, due to the significant market volatility caused by US tariff announcements and escalating geopolitical tensions.

European asset growth accelerates

The assets held by managers on behalf of European institutions, including pension funds and insurance companies, were €11.5trn at the end of last year. The figure represents a 5.5% increase from last year’s total of €10.9trn.

Growth in European institutional assets has accelerated from the end of 2023, when asset growth was 2.8% over the previous year.

However, European institutional assets are still far behind the €13.2trn peak recorded in 2022, a year that had seen 14.8% growth.

Among the top 10 managers of European institutional assets, BlackRock recorded the largest absolute increase in assets, having added over €218bn to its AUM, an increase of 17.9%.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management enjoyed greater relative growth in European institutional AUM. The company reported a 28.5% increase, from €407bn at the end of 2023, to over €523bn of assets managed on behalf of European institutions.