Asset manager fee revenues are estimated to have grown more than 3% in the fourth quarter over the third quarter as equity markets, as measured by the MSCI ACWI index rose almost 9%. The estimated effective fee rate, or the total amount of fees collected per assets under management, rose to 0.431% in the fourth quarter, from 0.417% in the third quarter, according to data from Moody's Investors Service. The rise in the fee rate is attributed to the relative outperformance of higher fee asset classes such as emerging markets and small caps relative to lower-fee peers such as large-cap U.S. equity funds and aggregate bond funds.
Moody's based its fee revenue assumptions on index returns and industry asset class mixes.
