Attended by 1,500 + industry leaders, including asset manager CEOs, fund selectors, investors, and service providers, Fund Forum, now in its 36th year, continues to go from strength to strength.
Calastone and SS&C descended on a sweltering Monaco, where they discussed how asset managers can stay relevant by branching out into different investment products and adopting exciting new technologies.
Fund Forum highlighted an industry adapting to changing investor expectations through new product structures, digital distribution, AI and modernised infrastructure.
Illiquidity, economies of scale and AI – are these the ways to grab the attention of investors?
“Over the last few years, distribution has gone through a fundamental shift and it is no longer a sales job anymore, or about taking a particular product and pitching it. Product placement is a thing of the past. Today, distribution is all about solutions and outcomes,” according to Spencer Baum, CEO, Head of UK and Europe at SS&C Global Investor and Distribution Solutions.
That shift is changing not only how firms distribute funds, but what they distribute, with increasing focus on private markets, semi-liquid structures and digitally enabled investment products.
Speaking at Fund Forum, Edward Glyn, Managing Director, Head of Global Markets, Calastone, said a growing number of asset managers are taking previously institutional-only private market products, packaging them up into semi-liquid fund structures, and then selling them onto retail investors, including private wealth advisers and High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs).
Flows into semi-liquid products, particularly in Europe, have been strong. European Long Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs), for instance, enjoyed a bumper year in 2025, with Assets under Management (AUM) soaring by 55% to reach EUR 34 billion. [1]
Edward questioned whether certain fund managers may be offloading illiquid assets which institutional investors do not want onto unsuspecting retail buyers. Experts at Fund Forum countered this, highlighting private market opportunities are increasing as more companies choose to stay private for longer.
However, Joseph Pinto, CEO, M&G Investments, stressed that it was important for managers to educate retail clients about the intricacies of private market investing.
With the top 20 fund managers looking after roughly 47% of global AUM, [2] speakers at Fund Forum talked about investors continuing flight to size, sparking debate about whether smaller firms can compete with mega managers or if further consolidation is the best option.
Pinto painted a more nuanced picture, noting that scale is important for firms selling commoditised products, but less so for managers running niche or esoteric strategies, where capacity constraints can become a problem.
AI is an obligatory topic of conversation at most industry events nowadays, and Fund Forum was no exception.
Several speakers said greater adoption of AI will help asset managers improve operational efficiency while creating a more personalised and cost-effective investment experience for clients.
By deploying customer-facing AI tools, a speaker said resources will be freed up, allowing advisers to focus on higher-value client work. Others noted back-office processes can also be streamlined by wider use of AI, with McKinsey estimating the technology could cut overheads by anywhere between 25% to 40%,[3].
Winning over the Digital Generation
If the funds industry is to sustain its growth, it needs to identify ways to win mandates from digitally savvy investors, many of whom rely on investment apps, social media and AI for financial advice, noted Ross Fox, Chief Commercial Officer, Calastone.
A Fidelity report found that while 39% of European investors still rely on financial institutions as their main source of investment advice, 21% use ChatGPT, and 12% turn to social media and “Finfluencers.”[4] Younger people are more likely to lean on social media for investment advice, with a separate study revealing that 45% of 18–30-year-olds obtain financial information from social media channels, whilst another 77% said they trust what ‘finfluencers’ tell them.[5]
Asset managers need to find ways to tap into this investor cohort, although firms are taking some positive steps. One asset manager said they are refining their website content and fund product descriptions to ensure that they are optimised for AI search engines.
Looking further ahead, Edward also pointed to embedded finance and digital ecosystems as potential channels for long-term investing.
Online gamers, of which there are reportedly 3.2 billion in the world, [6] are another target market which asset managers should be focusing on, according to Edward.
“If you look at the revenues from gaming, a lot of it stems from embedded payments and micro-payments. Instead of gamers spending their points on in-game purchases or Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs), you could convert those points into a token of a unitised investment fund. That is one way you could get people saving for their future,” he shared.
Tokenisation moves from test case to reality
Tokenisation in asset management is now a very real concept.
Citing a recent Calastone white paper – “Empowering Digital Distribution: The Strategic Rise of Tokenised Funds” – Simon Keefe, Head of Digital Assets, Calastone, said AUM in tokenised funds is expected to rise from $4 billion (as of 2024) to $235 billion by 2029, a 58x increase.
Some consultants are even more bullish, with BCG and McKinsey forecasting tokenised assets could reach between $600 billion [7] and $2 trillion [8] respectively by 2030.
Simon discussed during his on-stand presentation how the end-to-end tokenisation of a fund, digitising the entire value chain, is potentially transformative but also a longer process involving multiple parties, whose full benefits will take more time to realise. By contrast, distribution – making a traditional fund available through digital tokens on chain – is an immediate opportunity which allows asset managers to move quickly.
Simon highlighted there is growing demand for tokenised funds from DeFi treasurers seeking to obtain safety, liquidity and yield from their cash and Stablecoin holdings. This is echoed in our paper which found that 25% of De-Fi and Web3 respondents have cash invested in tokenised funds, and half plan to grow their allocations by at least 25%.
If the TradFi world does not grab this opportunity, Simon warned there are plenty of De-Fi providers who will, highlighting the recent emergence of DeFi Vaults, which autonomously execute yield-generating strategies on behalf of users.
Calastone’s Tokenisation Distribution network, which enables asset managers to tokenise any fund on the Calastone network without altering how it is structured, administered, or serviced, is making tangible progress, Simon continued.
This comes after Legal & General (L&G) went live on Calastone’s Tokenisation Distribution network in April 2026 making £50 billion liquidity funds available on the network, in what the asset manager described as being a “significant milestone in its digital distribution strategy.” [9]
It’s not all about the front end
Distribution is just one component of tokenisation. For tokenisation to flourish, back-end processes, such as transfer agency (TA), also need to be fit for purpose.
“The future is not about replacing TA platforms. It is about connecting and extending them. The industry needs a migration path from today’s proven infrastructure to a future digital ecosystem that is frictionless, globally connected and capable of servicing any asset type,” said Kay Hayre, Sales Director, Asset Management, SS&C.
SS&C’s strategy is to create a single servicing model. This will pave the way for traditional and digital assets across all geographies to be managed in the same way, using identical technology and service models, allowing all asset classes, old and new, to benefit from continual innovation.
“The value of a unified servicing model is not just supporting new asset classes. It is the ability to introduce a capability once and apply it everywhere. Anti-money laundering and know-your customer checks are good examples. Rather than maintaining separate onboarding and compliance processes across products and jurisdictions, firms can leverage a common service that supports every asset class through a consistent digital experience. The same principle applies to reporting, settlement, investor servicing and future digital capabilities,” added Kay.
Reflecting on Monaco
If there was one message that emerged consistently from Fund Forum 2026, it was that asset management is entering a new phase of evolution. Firms are broadening the products they offer, embracing AI to improve efficiency and client experience, and exploring digital distribution through tokenisation. While many of these changes remain at different stages of maturity, success will depend on combining innovative investment products with modern, scalable operating models capable of supporting the next generation of investors.
[1] Scope- April16, 2026 –ELTIF market with strong growth – assets under management rose by 55% to EUR 34 bn in 2025
[2] Thinking Ahead Institute- November 10, 2025 – World’s largest asset managers AUM surges to record $140 trillion driven by North America and passives
[3] McKinsey – July 16, 2025 – How AI could reshape the economics of the asset management industry
[4] Fidelity – 2026 Be Invested Globally Study
[5] FT Advisor – January 14, 2025 – Nearly 80% of young people trust information from ‘Finfluencers’
[6] G2A – February 3, 2026 – Gaming by the numbers: How many people play video games worldwide?
[7] Boston Consulting Group – October 29, 2024 – Tokenised funds: The Third Revolution in Asset Management Decoded
[8] McKinsey – June 20, 2024 – From ripples to waves : The transformational power of tokenising assets
[9] L&G – April 14, 2026 – L&G liquidity funds now live on SS&C Calastone Tokenised Distribution Network
