It’s time for managers to find out where they stand on the complexity curve.

Asset management is a thrilling – if perilous – place to be right now. Europe is back at the heart of global distribution strategy, the wealth channel is exploding, and demand for private markets, evergreen vehicles and active ETFs is booming. Yet the industry is also running headlong into what, in this year’s Supermodel II report, we’ve termed the ‘operational red zone’: soaring ambition colliding with operating platforms that can’t deliver at the speed or scale required.

Europe’s bounce back is striking. In Supermodel II, you’ll read how 41% of managers now rank it their top distribution priority as US uncertainty persists and UK/EU regulators actively encourage flows into private assets. Evergreen funds, interval structures and active ETFs are snowballing, helped by supportive regimes like the UK’s Long-Term Asset Fund (LTAF) and the EU’s ELTIF 2.0, widening access for retail investors. And the wealth channel is becoming the industry’s next powerhouse, with 65% of managers pivoting to accommodate private markets demand and technology-enabled investor engagement.

It's been quite a year for the industry once again. Even though economic volatility has long been a driving force in the industry, it is notable how geopolitical shocks and shifts have become a new normal. And the report doesn’t shy away from calling out those pressures: trade tariffs, economic underperformance, and rising investor and regulator expectations, to name but a few.

Carne turned 21 this year. It was founded to help managers and investors tackle the burden of complexity head-on, continually investing in our people, processes, data and technology to make a world of difference to our clients. In many ways, our journey reflects the same resilience and adaptability required of successful asset managers today.

Third-party management companies emerged from a clear regulatory push to strengthen fund governance, where, for many asset managers, partnering with specialists was simply the most practical and cost-effective way to build real substance in key European markets.

Fast-forward to today, and the leading ManCo providers now oversee trillions of euros in assets, have poured investment into technology to industrialise core fund operations processes, and have built deep expertise to help asset managers innovate across products and distribution.

With that evolution, expectations have changed. Clients are increasingly looking for AI risk assessment, automated contract analysis, AI-driven client engagement and agent-based information exchanges – exactly the functionality required to future-proof operating sophisticated global products. They’re looking for the specific technical expertise to launch new products and expand into new jurisdictions with reduced friction. And they’re looking for efficiencies to make all of it happen – fast.

We know that time to market to capture new growth opportunities is critical. At Carne, we launch funds in around 70 days on average – and we’re targeting under 41. Yet we know it’s a different story across the industry. In our survey, 60% of managers say the average fund launch at their firm takes 10 to 12 months or longer, from ideation to investor capital. The result? Surging demand for third-party ManCos to close that capability gap.

This is why I believe we are witnessing the now unstoppable rise of super management companies – or, as we at Carne are redefining them, the ‘Super ManCo’: tech-enabled, data-rich, AI-driven platforms that can aggregate information across administrators, accelerate launches and become natural hubs of operational excellence. Just as fund administration evolved from a back-office function in the 1990s to today, where sophisticated tech and service providers cover middle-office operations as well, Super ManCos are following the same trajectory, offering future-proofed speed, scale and insight.

If you take nothing else from Supermodel II, know this: the industry’s growth opportunities are vast – but so too is the growing complexity curve that comes with managing them operationally. I hope you’ll join me in digging into our rich research findings, hearing from managers on how they plan to adapt, scale and speed-up time to market in this new, ever-challenging era.

– John Donohoe, Founder & Group CEO