For decades, investment consulting firms have maintained their perch as the prime gatekeepers of institutional portfolios, advising asset owners on manager selection, asset allocation and portfolio construction. But with consultants, in their guise as outsourced CIOs, now almost universally bringing their own dogs to the money management fight, the question of who can gatekeep the gatekeepers is taking on growing relevance.

Worldwide index assets managed in ETFs or exchange-traded notes rose 23.9% during the year ended June 30 as BlackRock, the world’s largest manager of index ETF assets, widened its lead over Vanguard, its nearest competitor.

Assets under management at the 500 largest money managers rose 12.5% over the year ended Dec. 31 to $128 trillion, while assets of the top 20 managers rose by an even higher proportion at 15.9% to $58.2 trillion, the latest research by the Thinking Ahead Institute and Pensions & Investments shows.

Providers of mutual funds and target-date funds for defined contribution plans saw their assets under management post impressive double-digit percentage increases for the year ended June 30, during a year when markets even outperformed the previous year’s spectacular numbers.

The real estate picture over the 12 months ended June 30 was more disheartening with managers’ global assets under management down 4.4% to $1.82 trillion, Pensions & Investments’ most recent real estate manager survey results show.

Assets of the world’s top 300 retirement plans increased by 10% in 2023 to a total $22.64 trillion, staging a recovery from their 12.9% decline in 2022, according to the according to the latest annual survey by Pensions & Investments and Willis Towers Watson PLC's Thinking Ahead Institute.

Pensions & Investments’ annual survey of leading OCIO managers for the year through March 31 showed worldwide outsourced assets under management rebounding 16.7% to $3.07 trillion, boosted by AUM growth for both defined contribution plans and mission-based endowments and foundations.