Brookfield Asset Management

Brookfield Asset Management exited June 2026 with $672.2 billion in fee-earning assets, up 9.5% sequentially and 19.4% year over year. Total fee revenue increased 16.3% year over year in the quarter to $1.5 billion, while fee-related earnings increased 19.5% to $808 million.

Why it matters: Brookfield continues to generate positive flows, with its mix of alternative products—through its real estate/real assets, private equity, and private credit segments—benefiting from ongoing demand for nontraditional products. The firm picked up a record $77.0 billion from its fundraising efforts during the second quarter. This was significantly above its quarterly run rate of $31.2 billion in the previous eight quarters, with most of the uplift coming from the company's credit operations (which raised a record $51.4 billion in the June quarter). Brookfield deployed $20.9 billion of capital during the period, above its quarterly run rate of $15.3 billion over the past two years. Reported realizations of $10.8 billion were, however, a step down from $12.5 billion in the prior-year's period (noting that the firm only started reporting quarterly monetization data in late 2024).

The bottom line: With $1.268 trillion in total assets under management, Brookfield is the second-largest alternative asset manager in the world—behind Blackstone at $1.346 trillion at the end of June 2026. Effective fundraising, deployment, and realization activity have allowed the firm to continue to grow organically, despite the more volatile markets we've seen during the past five-plus years. As there was little in narrow-moat Brookfield's second-quarter results that would alter our long-term view of the firm, we expect to leave our $50 per share fair value estimate in place. Brookfield's shares are fairly valued right now relative to our fair value estimate. We continue to recommend that investors look for a 15% discount to our fair value estimate before considering the company's shares.

Distributable earnings (which remove the effects of unrealized activity) were $702 million, or $0.44 per share, billion during the second quarter, up from $613 million, or $0.38 per share, in the year-ago period. This was in line with the FactSet consensus estimates of $0.44 per share, and slightly below our own internal estimate of $0.45 per share.

Even with the increased volatility we've seen in the equity and credit markets so far this year, we continue to expect AUM to expand in the near term at Brookfield. Total fundraising of $77.0 billion during the second quarter was significantly above the $21.8 billion that was pulled in during the year-ago period with the firm's credit operations ($51.4 billion in capital raised—including some $45 billion from Brookfield Wealth Solutions—in the most recent quarter versus $15.8 billion in the second quarter of 2025) doing most of the heavy lifting.

The firm's real estate/real assets ($17.0 billion compared with $4.7 billion) and private equity ($8.6 billion versus $1.3 billion) also saw meaningful increases in their fundraising hauls, with year-to-date firmwide fundraising approaching $100 billion. Management expects fundraising to remain strong in the back half of the year, with the firm expected to exceed previous high-water marks for annual fundraising.

Brookfield deployed $20.9 billion during the June quarter, which was not only above the $13.9 billion deployed in the year-ago period but the firm's quarterly run rate of $15.3 billion during the past two years. Most of the deployments during the quarter were in Brookfield's credit ($10.0 billion) and real estate/real assets ($5.2 billion) operations.

The company also posted $10.8 billion in realizations during the second quarter, below the $12.5 billion recorded in the year-ago period and the $12.7 billion reported for the fourth quarter of 2025, but above the $7.8 billion in monetizations reported for the first quarter of 2026. Realizations had been creeping up incrementally in the past year or so. It should be noted that we only have data going back to the fourth quarter of 2024, so while it was disappointing to see the step back in monetizations in the March quarter, the results in the June quarter were a return to the trend.

Narrow-moat Brookfield remains a top pick for us among the seven publicly-traded alternative asset managers we cover, noting that Blackstone remains our top pick overall, adding it to the Best Ideas list at the beginning of February 2026. If we were to see Brookfield's shares trade down closer to a 15% discount to our fair value estimate, we would be more enthusiastic.

For more insight into the trends and other issues affecting the alternative-asset managers, which influence our long-term forecasts for firms like Brookfield, please see our latest Industry Pulse, "US Alternative-Asset Managers: 2026 Q2," which was published on June 30, 2026. We also have a broader industry primer available for all of the US-based asset managers in our annually updated Industry Landscape, "US Asset Managers," which was last published on Dec. 18, 2025, and a special report, "Financial Services Observer: US-Based Alternative Asset Manager Moats Remain Solid; Largest Firms Should Continue to Capture Bigger Share of Market," published on Dec. 2, 2025. The latter provides deeper insight into the seven alternative asset managers we cover, including our take on Brookfield Asset Management.

We've raised our fair value estimate for Brookfield to USD 53 per share from USD 50 to reflect revised expectations, as well as the effects of the time value of money, since our last update. Our fair value estimate implies price/earnings multiples of 28.6 and 24.0 times our 2026 and 2027 estimates for distributable earnings per share, respectively. Brookfield's shares have traded at an average of 30.4 times trailing earnings during the past four years, with the highest (lowest) multiple being 38.4 (24.7) times. We use a 21% US statutory corporate tax rate and an 11.7% (10.7%) cost of equity (weighted average cost of capital) in our valuation, noting that the firm's effective tax rate is expected to be 15%-20%.

Consistent with how we value the other alternative-asset managers, we view fundraising, deployments, realizations, fee-earning AUM, base fee levels, realized performance fees, and compensation costs as key drivers of our valuation. Total fundraising for Brookfield during 2025 was USD 111.7 billion, below full-year efforts of USD 136.7 billion in 2024. Inflows of USD 98.1 billion during the first half of 2026 were more than double the capital raised in the prior year's period, setting the firm up for more than USD 150 billion in fundraising this year. We expect the company to raise USD 150 billion to USD 200 billion in new capital annually during 2026-30.

Brookfield deployed USD 65.5 billion during 2025, above full-year deployment efforts in 2024 of USD 47.7 billion. First-half deployments of USD 40.7 billion this year were above deployments of USD 30.0 billion in the year-ago period. We expect future deployments of USD 70 billion to USD 80 billion annually during 2026-30. As for realizations, the firm did not start disclosing details on its monetizations until last year, when Brookfield posted a record USD 50.1 billion in realizations. First-half monetizations of USD 18.6 billion this year were lower, though, than the USD 22.2 billion recorded in the prior-year's period. We envision between USD 30 billion to USD 50 billion in realizations annually during 2026-30.

Brookfield exited June 2026 with USD 1.268 trillion in total managed assets, with fee-related AUM at USD 672.2 billion. Over the next four and a half years, we envision the firm's fee-earning and total AUM to reach USD 1.125 trillion and USD 2.215 trillion, respectively. We expect to see modest levels of fee compression, with total revenue expanding at an average annual rate of 17.6% during 2026-30. Compensation costs averaged 30.3% of revenue during the past several years, and we expect these expenses to be in a range of 32% 35% of revenue during 2026-30. Distributable earnings (which remove the effects of unrealized activity) are expected to average USD 4.2 billion annually during our five-year forecast, with our current 2026 and 2027 EPS estimates of USD 1.85 and USD 2.21, respectively, based on expectations for distributable earnings of USD 3.0 billion and USD 3.6 billion.

We project a bull-case fair value estimate of USD 82 per share and a bear-case estimate of USD 32 per share. Our upside case implies P/E multiples of 35.4 and 29.7 times our 2026 and 2027 estimates for distributable earnings, respectively. This scenario assumes strong capital raising, deployment activity, and realization levels, with the net result being a 25.4% CAGR for revenue during 2026-30, with distributable earnings also being 20%-25% higher than in our base case. Our downside scenario implies P/E multiples of 23.0 and 19.3 times our 2026 and 2027 distributable earnings estimates, respectively. This scenario assumes weak fundraising, deployment activity, and monetizations, with the net result being a 13.1% CAGR for revenue during 2026-30, with distributable earnings also being 20%-25% lower than in our base case.

Unlike the more traditional asset managers, such as Invesco and T. Rowe Price, which focus on traditional asset classes like equity, fixed-income, balanced, and money market funds, alternative-asset managers like Blackstone deal with less-liquid alternative investments like private equity, credit alternatives, real estate/real assets, and hedge funds. Even so, we think that the alternative-asset managers, much like the traditional asset managers, benefit from switching costs (the core moat source) and intangible assets, which include organizational attributes—such as product mix, distribution channel strength, and geographic reach—and true intangibles—like strong and respected brands and manager reputations.

We assign Brookfield Asset Management a narrow Morningstar Economic Moat Rating. The company has, in our view, built a solid position in alternative-asset management, using its reputation, broad product portfolio, investment performance/record, and a cadre of dedicated professionals to not only raise capital but maintain its reputation as one of the go-to firms for institutional and high-net-worth investors looking for exposure to alternative assets. Brookfield is currently the world's second-largest stand-alone alternative-asset manager, with USD 1.268 trillion in total managed assets, including USD 672.2 billion in fee-earning AUM, as of the end of June 2026.

Brookfield operates with scale in each of its major product lines—real estate/real assets (with USD 686.0 billion in total AUM and USD 292.7 billion in fee-earning AUM), which includes infrastructure (USD 262.0 billion/USD 114.2 billion), energy (USD 144.0 billion/USD 74.3 billion), and real estate (USD 280.0 billion/USD 104.2 billion) funds, private equity (USD 166.0 billion/USD 53.6 billion), and alternative credit (USD 416.0 billion/USD 325.9 billion). That said, we feel that the firm would benefit from some diversification, with the company deriving 43% (55%) of its fee-earning AUM (base management fees) from real estate/real assets, 48% (35%) from credit strategies, and 9% (10%) from private equity.

Among the alternative-asset managers we cover, Brookfield has the lowest ratio of fee-earning AUM to total AUM at around 50%, which means it has plenty of dry powder that has yet to be put to work. Most of this undeployed capital is in real estate/real assets, such that if Brookfield brought its firmwide fee-earning AUM levels up to the group average of 70%, then real estate/real assets would make up an even larger portion of fee-earning AUM (and base management fees). Ultimately, we'd like to see a bit more diversification, especially when considering the firm's large real estate/real assets exposure in its base management fees, as well as its exposure to alternative credit.

Even so, Brookfield has done a solid job of not only gathering assets but differentiating itself from its peers. While the barriers to entry are not particularly significant for the industry, the barriers to success are extremely high. It takes time and skill to put together a long enough record of investment performance to start gathering assets and even more time to build the scale necessary to be competitive. BlackRock is the only legitimate traditional asset manager of size competing in this part of the market despite the fact that most of our coverage has been focused on building out alternative-asset manager offerings during much of the past decade.

On the switching cost front, alternative-asset managers like Brookfield (unlike their traditional brethren) have not had to rely heavily on investor inaction to keep annual retention rates high, as the products they offer tend to have lockup periods, preventing investors from redeeming part or all of their investment for a prolonged period. These types of arrangements have allowed Brookfield to post an annual retention rate of well over 90% on average.

The company has also been one of the largest fundraisers among stand-alone publicly traded alternative-asset managers, pulling in USD 501.5 billion with its alternative credit (USD 293.9 billion), real estate/real assets (USD 180.3 billion), and private equity (USD 27.2 billion) offerings during 2021-25. Brookfield accounted for 14% of the industry's alternative credit fundraising over the past five years, 14% of new commitments for real estate/real asset funds, and 1% of capital raised for private equity/venture capital funds. Overall, Brookfield accounted for 6% of total fundraising for alternative products during 2021-25.

Brookfield has produced average adjusted returns on invested capital of 101.9% over the past several years, though much of that is due to the favorable invested capital position the parent company, Brookfield Corporation, put it in when the asset management firm went public in December 2022. We expect Brookfield to earn ROICs of 45.6% on average during 2026-35, comfortably above our estimate of the company's cost of capital of 10.7%. These strong returns are largely attributable to the level of interest that still exists for alternatives and the potential for the retail market (a large untapped market for alternative assets) to open up gradually to alternative-asset managers (blunting pricing pressure), as well as Brookfield's more favorable invested capital position.

That said, we believe increased competition from peers (including more traditional managers like BlackRock, which has highlighted alternatives as a key growth area) is likely to drag on results over time. In our view, continued pressure on fees, a higher overall tax rate, and a general maturing of the industry from a solid period of above-average growth in the face of shifting investor demand for alternatives are also likely to weigh on results over the long run.

Brookfield, with USD 672.2 billion in fee-earning AUM as of June 2026, is a go-to firm for institutional and high-net-worth investors seeking exposure to alternative assets.

The company's increasing scale, diversified product offerings, long record of investment performance, and strong client relationships leave it well positioned for a variety of market conditions.

Customer demand for alternative assets has increased, and Brookfield could benefit from increased demand from high-net-worth individuals or the successful expansion of retail products.

Private equity and real estate/real assets are both highly cyclical and heavily reliant on efficient deployments and exits for performance and incentive income.

Generating 43% of its fee-earning AUM and 55% of base management fees from real estate/real assets, Brookfield is dependent on the state of real estate markets, as well as the infrastructure and renewable energy markets.

The company is also exposed to the vagaries of the credit market, with 48% of its fee-earning AUM and 35% of base management fees coming from its alternative credit operations.