The asset management industry was dominated by two major themes in the first half of 2013: margin improvement and the narrowing of the space between distributors and managers. This is the finding of kasina, the management consultancy firm, as shared in its paper, "Wirehouses Begin to Close the Margin Gap Despite Sustained Improvement at Asset Management Firms."

Kasina's report notes that asset management firms started seeing margin improvement in 2012, with the trend carrying over into the present year. The average operating and net income margins bumped to 31.3 percent and 22.6 percent respectively in Q2 2013, up from Q4 2012's 31.2 percent and 21.3 percent. The rise, kasina asserts, is attributable to higher AUM and a spike in fund management fees. But it wasn't all good news, kasina research shows, noting a slowdown in net flows to fixed income products thanks to a rise in bond yields. Equity net flows experienced a mild boost in 2013 compared to 2012, but were still unable to offset the fixed income loss.

The wirehouse distributors, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Wells Fargo Advisors, and UBS Wealth Management reported mostly encouraging numbers. They posted higher AUM and client balances, along with increased asset management, distribution, and administration fees and net asset flows.

See kasina's research which includes charts and graphs, here. 

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