The divide in performance in the investment management business continues to be stark. This interesting new data confirms our observations in our May 2020 Market Overview blog based on our work with a wide variety of clients. The Morgan Stanley report data focuses on public asset managers. Our observations point out a continuing nuance to this divide, in that smaller niche managers (often private companies) in less efficient asset classes with higher returns/volatility expectations who can generate persistent, scalable alpha, are continuing to flourish, even in the long only equity and credit markets. For the first time in a couple of decades, boutiques are proving that there is a second path to growth in quality earnings in the investment business and that the future will not be exclusively dominated by large, multi-market, multi-product consolidators. By Amanda Cantrell
