New research suggests that today there are four models for success for fundsters and other asset managers.

"We're starting to see a big divergence between winners and losers," especially in the U.S. retail space, Casey Quirk partner Jeff Levi tells MFWire. "There's a number of things that suggest that the next five years will be much more difficult and complex than the previous five years."

This month Casey Quirk, McLagan, the European Institute, and the U.S. Institute released the findings from their 14th annual global asset management benchmarking survey. The researchers describe four successful business models for asset managers, and they give estimated growth rates for each for the past three years.

"Channel leaders" (three-year net new flows of 11 percent of AUM) have a "strong local brand" and focus on a particular channel.

"Global Broad Capability" shops (NNF of 11 percent of AUM) are the giant firms with the scale to maintain famous brands and reach across many channels and countries. Think of firms whose names rhyme with "Cidelity" or "Fapital Group".

"Scale Beta" shops (NNF of 16 percent of AUM) are the "oligopoly of passive providers" as well as the rising smart beta specialists.

The final rising model, and the one with the highest growth rate (NNF of 30 percent of AUM), is what these researchers call "focused new active". These are shops in the liquid alternatives space, or shops with high "active share" or concentration; their wares are hard or impossible to index and their new offerings are often breaking new ground. 

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