America's Top Money Managers
Companies have come and gone, stocks have surged and crashed, reputations have soared and sunk. But throughout the past decade, a single name has topped the II 300: Fidelity Investments. The Boston-based institution's total assets of $794 billion at year-end 2002, though down 10 percent from the year before, are still sufficient to put it atop Institutional Investor's annual ranking of America's top 300 money managers. Fidelity's hold on the top slot is all the more impressive in that the firm remains privately held and has made no acquisitions in an industry that is consolidating.
To complete the ranking, Institutional Investor surveyed approximately 200 banks, insurance companies, pension funds, independent fund managers and foreign money management firms with registered offices in Europe. European companies and companies headquartered in Europe (for example, HSBC Holdings) were asked to report global assets under management. Non-European companies were allowed to report only European-derived assets (invested domestically or internationally) and non-European assets slated for investment in Europe. Senior Associate Editor Tucker Ewing compiled the data from questionnaires completed by the institutions themselves. This information was supported by annual reports, additional reporting and follow-up faxes and telephone calls.
The numbers are as comparable as possible given the different accounting practices in Europe. Assets are stated in euros. In some cases, assets at continental European institutions are higher than reported because their accounting rules require that they value assets at the lower of cost or market value. Currency conversion and rounding mean that not all columns add up. All information is as of December 31, 2002.