Mutual fund firms are generally more profitable than broker-dealers, and the gap continues to widen. That's one tidbit from new data just released by kasina.

"This past quarter the spread increased yet again, as distributor margins decreased while asset manager margins remained relatively steady," kasina found. "From 2009 to 2011, the spread between asset manager and distributor margins grew steadily and now stands at 19 percent."

kasina noted that, thanks to this gap, "asset managers also face increased expense side pressure from distributors." That, combined with the broader investor shift from equities to bonds and from active to passive, helped push asset managers' operating margins down to 31.2 percent in the fourth quarter, from 32.2 percent in Q3, despite a six percent jump in open-ended mutual fund assets during the same period.

kasina's data, released today, is based on earnings results from publicly-traded asset managers. 

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