The Investment Adviser Association (IAA) and National Regulatory Services (NRS) has issued the 14th annual Evolution/Revolution report, an in-depth study analyzing annual updates filed by investment advisors registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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The 2014 report is based on information on file with the SEC as of April 7, 2014.
This year’s report notes that total regulatory assets under management (RAUM) reported by all investment advisors as of April 7, 2014 was $61.7 trillion, representing a substantial increase from the $54.8 trillion RAUM reported in April 2013.
The total number of SEC-registered investment advisors increased from 10,533 in April 2013 to 10,895 in April 2014. These advisors employ more than 700,000 persons and serve almost 28 million clients.
"The report demonstrates that the investment advisory profession is dynamic and diverse," said Karen Barr, General Counsel of the Investment Adviser Association (IAA).
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By GlobalData"The data reflects the increasing demand for investment advice on behalf of individual and institutional investors and the significant role that investment advisers play in the financial markets."
"The data shows that the investment advisor industry continues to grow across all market segments and by every measure. It is evident," noted John Gebauer, NRS’s Managing Director, "that small advisors join the adviser ranks each year and constitute the largest market segment; yet, due to the growth across segments, the concentration of RAUM with the largest advisors has also increased, and this year the top 1% of advisers manage more than 52% of the total RAUM."
Other key findings of the report include that:
- Advisers with less than $1 billion RAUM account for 71.5% of all SEC-registered advisors but manage only 3.5% of all reported RAUM.
- The number of clients that advisors serve increased by 9.3% year-over-year.
- Individuals continue to comprise the largest categories of clients of SEC-registered advisors. In 2014, 6,484 (59.5%) investment advisers reported having at least some high- net worth clients and 5,601 (51.4%) reported having at least some non-high-net worth clients.
- Most SEC-registered investment advisers are small businesses. In 2014, more than half of all advisers (57.1%) reported having ten or fewer full-time and part-time non-clerical employees and 87.9% reported having fewer than 50 such employees.
- More than one-third of all SEC-registered advisers (36.2%) reported that they manage at least one private fund. Private fund advisers reported a total of 28,429 private funds with collective RAUM of $9.5 trillion – up 11.8% from 2013.
- Hedge funds comprise 40% of all reported private funds while private equity funds comprise approximately 33%.
Since the first report in 2001, Evolution/Revolution has identified significant trends and developments based on information that investment advisors are required to file with the SEC. This includes information on assets under management, employees, advisory and other business activities, clients, custody, disciplinary history and other data.
