SulAmérica Investimentos reaches R$ 100 billion under management

SulAmérica Investimentos announced that it has surpassed R$ 100 bilhões under management and administration. Marcelo Mello, CEO of the asset, said the company is less focused on setting a new asset target and more interested in fine‑tuning the composition of these resources. The goal is to increase the average administration fee of the manager. Compared with January to September 2025 and the same period of 2026, it has already advanced 17%. In a scenario of greater portfolio diversification, Mello calculates there is room to grow another 15%. “All the team’s effort is aimed at increasing our average fee, the average fee. And for that we need to become increasingly sophisticated in our product portfolio,” Mello told NeoFeed. This growth depends not only on internal work but also on macroeconomic conditions. The executive evaluates a Selic rate between 9.5% and 10%, accompanied by a more favorable fiscal scenario, would stimulate clients to take more risk. “It is a nominal interest of 9.5% to 10%, with a real interest below 6%. The actuarial target of large investors, of foundations, is roughly this, 5.5% to 6%. From there they start to feel motivated to leave fixed‑income assets and sovereign risk and look at more risk,” Mello says. Today 90% of the R$ 100 billion is concentrated in fixed income and private credit: 54% in the first class and another 36% in the second, mostly in high‑grade credit. Multi‑markets and equities split the remaining 10%. The new strategy aims to raise the share of more sophisticated and higher‑value products, which naturally carry higher remuneration for the manager. Looking at this scenario, SulAmérica has already moved. In October 2025 it completed the transfer of funds from Athena Capital, which ceased operations.

The founders now lead the undesignated equity strategy within the asset, now with approximately R$ 700 million. For now, capture is virtually nil. “There is no demand for equity income,” says Mello. “It is a strategy we are sowing.” Another front is infrastructure. The firm currently has about R$ 5 billion in products linked to the sector and prepares to launch an active infrastructure strategy. The manager also evaluates reinforcing macro multi‑markets of higher volatility. In this case, the preference is to hire managers or specialized teams and bring them into the asset, rather than necessarily buying other managers. New money and more distribution Higher rates contributed to the patrimony reaching R$ 100 billion, but the amount was also the result of new money entering the house. Since 2024, about R$ 16 billion entered SulAmérica in net capture, not considering asset returns. In 2026, approximately R$ 2.5 billion entered so far. To achieve this result, the manager increased the places where its products can be found. Three years ago, XP and BTG were practically the two main doors of SulAmérica for the individual investor. Since then, Itaú, Bradesco, Caixa and Banco do Brasil, among other institutions, have started to distribute its funds. Currently there are about 30 agreements with banks and platforms. Of the R$ 100 billion, approximately 60% comes from institutional investors and from the insurance company’s technical reserves. The remaining 40% is mainly in these channels. The strategy helped gain scale. Now, a change in how these same platforms remunerate their advisors begins to alter competition among products. The fee‑based account The advance of the fee‑based model is one of the reasons Mello considers it necessary to sophistify the shelf.

In the rebate model, the distributor receives part of the product remuneration placed in the client’s portfolio. In the fee‑based model, the investor pays directly for the advisory service, reducing the influence of the product commission on the intermediary’s remuneration. In one of the main partners of SulAmérica, the fee‑based share rose from 8% to approximately 17%. As the asset has between R$ 10 billion and R$ 12 billion distributed by this institution, the CEO estimates that about R$ 1.7 billion is already in this model. “When you go to a model where you do not look at the commission, you will have the most efficient and the best product,” affirms. The popularisation of ETFs in Brazil corroborates this scenario. With lower fees and greater scale, they become more competitive when the rebate loses weight in product choice. “I need a very sophisticated product to compete with the ETF,” affirms. “If I stay in the basic, I will not be able to compete with a product that is cheaper, more efficient and has more scale.” To increase its average administration fee while distribution favours cheaper and more efficient products, something apparently contradictory, Mello wants to bet on sophisticated products and specialised management, with the intention not of increasing the fees charged on existing funds, but of changing the composition of the patrimony under management. “There is still much room to grow,” says. “But I think more important than the AUM itself is to see the investor diversifying the portfolio more.”