This issue marks the 48th year Pensions & Investments has profiled the largest managers of U.S. institutional tax-exempt assets.
Some 477 investment management firms responded to an online questionnaire for this annual special report. This year is the first time fewer than 500 managers have been profiled, due in part to manager consolidation as well eliminating subsidiary manager listings the year before.
All money management firms are encouraged to respond to the survey. To qualify for inclusion in the database, however, the firm must manage assets for U.S. institutional tax-exempt clients, such as qualified retirement plans, endowments or foundations, and answer the minimum required questions.
The report contains detailed information on the worldwide assets under management of the qualified respondents, including asset mix, insurance company, sovereign wealth fund or central bank client assets, and a regional breakout of clients.
Within the U.S. institutional tax-exempt universe, P&I further breaks down the data into asset classes and then into investment style.
This year's survey had a few new questions, with the biggest addition about the makeup of managers' workforces. P&I asked what percentage of the total workforce, senior management and investment staff are women or minorities. It was a voluntary question, but had a good response rate in the first year. P&I is now working on fine-tuning the definition of the question for next year's survey after receiving feedback from respondents, particularly about how to define the term minorities located outside the U.S.
Other new questions concerned how much AUM is managed globally in cryptocurrency and assets managed for registered investment advisers. Only one manager listed any cryptocurrency assets under management.
All qualified firms are included for the charts and tables that are published, but only the largest 50 firms — ranked by worldwide institutional assets — are profiled in print.
Full profiles of all ranked money managers and complete listings by asset class and investment strategy can be found in the P&I Research Center at pionline.com/researchcenter. The online rankings are interactive and are searchable by asset class, investment strategy, region and clients.
Research Center access is free to plan executives. Money managers, consultants and other service providers have access by subscription.
P&I targeted more than 900 banks, trust companies, insurance companies and independent investment management firms in North America and abroad. The data contained in the stories, profiles, charts and tables in this issue and in the Research Center were developed by P&I staff from the firms' answers to the detailed, online questionnaire and through follow-up emails and phone calls.
All information, except where noted, is as of Dec. 31.
Special reports derived from this information will be published throughout the year. A special report focusing on managers of defined contribution assets will be highlighted July 26. More in-depth reports on investment outsourcing and real estate managers will appear in the June 28 and Oct. 4 issues, respectively. Data from this special report also will be used in a ranking of the largest managers in the world, done in conjunction with Willis Towers Watson PLC's Thinking Ahead Institute, to be published Oct. 18.
All data in this special report are ©2021 Crain Communications Inc. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
