AI will make the biggest companies bigger and the smallest more powerful. Hotels show who gets squeezed

In 1988, eight people squeezed into a single room in New York to start an investment firm around an unusual premise: data and technology could give investors a clearer view of risk.

That firm became BlackRock .

Its Aladdin system grew from an internal risk tool into a platform connecting portfolio construction, trading, operations and accounting.

BlackRock ended 2025 with $14 trillion under management after attracting $698 billion of net inflows in a single year.

The revealing number, though, is eight.

Today the average SEC-registered investment adviser focused on individual clients also employs eight people and manages $424 million.

Small advisers are not disappearing.

Their number reached a record 16,544 in 2025, and more than two-thirds manage less than $1 billion.

The giant became vastly larger, while the boutique became easier to build.

The pressure is landing between them.

DeVoe & Company counted 322 wealth management transactions in 2025, a record, up from 272 the year before.

The more telling detail is who was buying.

The industry had 18% more sellers but 19% fewer buyers than the prior year, and first-time buyers accounted for just 8% of deals, the lowest share on record.

Acquisitions are concentrating into a shrinking set of private equity-backed platforms.