The global asset management industry is on the cusp of a historic milestone. According to the latest research, the world’s professionally managed wealth is heading toward a landmark figure — and the forces reshaping how that wealth is managed are just as significant as the number itself.
The $200 Trillion Milestone
Global assets under management (AuM) will grow from $139 trillion in 2024 to $200 trillion by 2030. This shows a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2%. Total investable wealth around the world is set to exceed $481 trillion. These figures are from PwC’s 2025 Global Asset & Wealth Management Report. It surveyed 300 asset managers, institutional investors, and distributors. This included 19 countries and 10 territories.
To give you an idea, $200 trillion is roughly double the global GDP. This shows a huge concentration of capital under professional management.
Who Is Driving This Growth?
The growth story is not uniform across the world. North America will remain the largest market for global AuM, growing at 6.2% each year. However, Asia-Pacific is set to grow even faster, at 6.8% annually. Latin America will grow at 6.6%, while the Middle East and Africa will expand at 6.3%. Europe is growing at 5.6%.
Asia-Pacific is growing fast due to several factors. New wealth is emerging in markets like India. There are also intergenerational wealth transfers throughout the region. Also, countries like Japan are trying to move household savings into investments.
Two-thirds of global investable wealth growth will come from demographic changes. These shifts involve mass-affluent individuals and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). These groups are expected to grow at rates of 5.7% and 6.5%, respectively.
Private Markets: The New Profit Engine
One of the most consequential shifts in the industry is the rise of private markets. Private markets currently generate about four times more profit per billion dollars of assets than traditional managers. Private market revenues are expected to hit $432.2 billion. This will account for over half of the global asset management industry’s revenue by 2030.
Investors seek higher returns and want to diversify away from public equities. This drives their dominance. Regulatory reforms are also playing a key role. New semi-liquid structures are changing the game. The UK’s long-term asset funds help investors. So do European long-term investment funds (ELTIF 2.0) and US interval funds. They make it easier to access private markets.
Tokenisation: The Wildcard
Perhaps the most surprising growth story lies in tokenised funds. Tokenised fund AuM is expected to jump from $90 billion in 2024 to $715 billion by 2030. This means a CAGR of 41%. The retailisation of private markets drives the growth. This rapid growth comes from a few key factors. First, there’s a stronger blockchain infrastructure. Next, we see more institutional adoption. Finally, there’s shared ownership in private equity, credit, and infrastructure assets.
Meanwhile, passive AuM is expected to grow at a 10% CAGR, hitting $70 trillion by 2030.
The Profitability Paradox
Despite the growth, not everything is positive. Revenues are up, but profits are down. Profit as a share of AuM has dropped about 19% since 2018. It’s expected to fall another 9% by 2030.
Nearly 90% of firms felt pressure on profits in the last five years. The cost-to-income ratio remains high. Fee competition is increasing. To serve different client groups, firms must invest heavily in talent and technology.
The AI and Technology Imperative
In response, asset managers are placing enormous bets on technology. Half of asset managers are pursuing partnerships with wealth managers and fintech companies to build technology-driven ecosystems, viewing AI integration and automation as essential for transforming their business models by 2030.
PwC’s Global Asset & Wealth Management Leader, Albertha Charles, summed up the challenge clearly: firms that succeed will be those that “rewire fastest, translating innovation into digital ecosystems that serve more diverse investors, more personally and efficiently than ever before.”
The four winning business archetypes identified by PwC are full-scale private-to-public hypermarkets (projected to account for 49.5% of revenue growth), niche champions (18.2%), solutions platforms (14%), and low-cost manufacturers (12.2%) — yet only 42% of firms today fit one of these models.
The Bottom Line
The path to $200 trillion in AuM by 2030 is real. However, it will favour those who can adapt, not just the big players. Growth is accelerating in private markets, digital assets, and emerging regions — while traditional models face structural margin erosion. For investors and industry participants alike, the next five years will be defined less by how much wealth is managed and more by who manages it and how.
