Investment Management
State Street Global Advisors, the corporation’s investment management business, is a pioneer in indexing and quantitative investing, and the creator of the first U.S.-listed exchange-traded fund (ETF).
As the world’s fourth largest investment manager,1 we offer a broad range of investment solutions that span the entire risk-return spectrum and cover all major asset classes across geographies, investment styles, and vehicles.
Our primary objective is to be the leading partner and provider of innovative investment exposures and solutions to our clients.
Achieving strong growth and improved performance
Global Advisors achieved robust performance in 2024, including $146 billion in net inflows. Total revenues climbed 13 percent year-over-year to an all-time high of $2.3 billion. Assets under management (AUM) grew by 15 percent year-over-year to $4.7 trillion.
Building on the prior year’s success, the SPDR ETF business continued to reach new milestones — generating $109 billion in flows and driving ETF AUM to $1.6 trillion. Our flagship Gold ETF, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2024, gathered nearly $2 billion in net new assets.
“We achieved significant growth in 2024, with year-end AUM increasing by 15 percent to $4.7 trillion. This included more than 3 percent organic growth for the second consecutive year, reflecting our continued momentum and deepening client relationships worldwide.”
Total AUM at year-end
ETF trading volume
The Cash business delivered $32 billion in flows, building on the prior year’s record net inflows.
Index Fixed Income strategies saw net inflows of $36 billion, while our U.S. retirement business continued its upward trajectory with $28 billion in net new defined contribution asset flows, largely driven by target date funds. Our Institutional business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa achieved record annual net inflows of $66 billion.
Optimizing strategies for client success
As trusted partners to our clients, we leveraged our deep understanding of their needs and challenges to deliver innovative products and identify emerging opportunities for them — reinforcing our commitment to aiding their success in any economic environment.
While 2024 delivered strong equity performance with new highs and solid returns, clients remained focused on concentration risk, valuations, and inflation.
We saw strong demand for both index products and strategies that provided attractive risk/return profiles, such as our refined equity strategies. Overall, our active equity capabilities performed well, with 92 percent of our strategies outperforming their benchmarks on an AUM basis.
Fixed-income investors turned to our cash and short-duration products in search of stability and preservation of value amid inflationary pressures and interest rate uncertainty. Additionally, we saw rising demand for fixed-income indexing and systematic strategies, alongside growing interest in niche exposures such as emerging markets debt, private credit, and senior loans.
“We remain committed to partnering with our clients to provide them and the investors they serve with tailored solutions that help them achieve their unique goals and objectives.”
Lori Heinel
Global Chief Investment Officer, State Street Global Advisors
Propelling growth through strategic partnerships and market expansion
Through strategic alliances, we delivered innovative investment solutions that generate substantial value and unlock new growth opportunities for clients globally.
Our partnership with Raiz bolstered digital and micro-investment offerings for Australian retail investors, while our work with Fideuram Asset Management introduced Europe’s first “ETF as a Service,” delivering tailored solutions for wealth managers.
We established a strategic relationship with Envestnet, a leading provider of integrated technology, data, and wealth solutions, to broaden our access to independent wealth advisory and high-net-worth distribution channels.
In addition, we deepened our engagement in the retirement and income solutions space through key partnerships. Our collaboration with PensionBee, a global leader in the consumer retirement market, increases access for millions of Americans by offering target date model portfolios built with our ETFs for individual retirement accounts. Further, our partnership with Micruity, a pioneer in retirement income technology solutions, improves defined contribution plan participant decision-making through comprehensive and customizable support for income modeling, education, and election tools.
In collaboration with Apollo Global Management, we launched a groundbreaking ETF offering designed to make investment-grade private credit investments available to everyday investors.
“Our goal is to empower investors at every level by making wealth-building more accessible, driving long-term value for our clients and shareholders.”
Anna Paglia
Chief Business Officer, State Street Global Advisors
Additionally, our alliance with Bridgewater Associates further demonstrates our efforts to democratize access to institutional-caliber investment strategies, enabling all investors to build more diversified and resilient portfolios.
These partnerships exemplify our ability to integrate our expertise with that of other leading providers to quickly deploy differentiated solutions to meet investors’ evolving needs globally and at scale.
Innovating for growth in shifting markets
Amid changing market dynamics, individual investors continued to seek the right balance between investment outperformance and saving for retirement. In response, we expanded our product suite, focusing on key growth areas such as fixed income, global wealth, and ETFs.
Notable additions to our SPDR ETF portfolio include:
- MyIncome: Actively managed corporate and municipal target-maturity bond ETFs, enabling investors to build customized bond ladder portfolios tailored to their cash flow and liquidity needs
- SSGA US Equity Premium Income (SPIN): Actively managed ETF designed to generate augmented income through a dynamic call writing program
- Bloomberg Enhanced Roll Yield Commodity Strategy No K-1 (CERY): ETF tracking the total return performance of the Bloomberg Enhanced Roll Yield Total Return Index
To help investors capitalize on digital asset growth and diversification, we launched three SPDR actively managed technology-focused ETFs: Galaxy Digital Asset Ecosystem ETF (DECO), Galaxy Hedged Digital Asset Ecosystem ETF (HECO), and Galaxy Transformative Tech Accelerators ETF (TEKX).
Revenue growth
Net revenues
Net inflows
In 2024, we demonstrated our ability to innovate at scale and remain agile in a dynamic market by launching more than 90 new products globally — surpassing the combined total of all new product launches over the prior three years. This achievement highlights our commitment to responding swiftly to emerging opportunities and evolving client needs, reinforcing our leadership in driving innovation within the asset management industry.
Empowering investors with proxy voting choice
With our commitment to enabling all investors to achieve their stewardship objectives, we have maintained industry leadership in providing an Investor Voting Choice option across more than 80 percent of eligible equity index assets. That means that individual investors, even in our ETFs, have the opportunity to choose their specific proxy voting policy from a broad range of options.
Looking ahead
Building on our record performance, we are steadfast in driving strategic growth and delivering innovative solutions that create value for our clients. In 2025, we will expand our presence in high-priority segments, including private markets, fixed income, ETFs and wealth, while targeting fast-growing markets in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. Additionally, we will continue apace with new products. We will focus on expanding our distribution relationships around the world to broaden our engagement with a wider range of investors.
We will continue to take a multi-asset-class approach in delivering custom and tailored portfolio solutions, integrating alternative asset classes into more of our offerings to help drive success for our clients and shareholders.
Guided by our vision to be the world’s leading partner and provider of investment exposures and tailored solutions, we remain committed to providing our clients with thoughtful insights, relevant investment ideas, and stability in an ever-evolving market landscape.