Top asset managers are struggling with investor reluctance to embrace risk and put money into the markets, as interest rates and yields on cash savings remain at their highest level in more than a decade.
Investors have been stubbornly sitting in cash, hurting bottom lines for asset managers and forgoing gains on more than $1.5tn during a record bull run that until recently pushed markets to all time highs.
Several factors are driving the caution. Risk-free yields are outpacing inflation for the first time in decades. A narrow stock market riding high on a handful of volatile tech stocks, widespread geopolitical conflict, poor economic sentiment and an uncertain US election are all keeping investors firmly on the sidelines.