Who Owns PIMCO?

PIMCO was founded in 1971 in Newport Beach, California, as the money management unit of Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company. Bill Gross, Jim Muzzy, and Bill Podlich launched the operation with $12 million in assets, initially managing separate accounts for the insurer's clients. The firm's founding insight was active bond management: trading bonds for total return rather than holding them to maturity, an approach that was unconventional in an era when bond portfolios were mostly passive.

Through the 1970s and 1980s the firm pioneered strategies that became industry standards, including early use of financial futures and mortgage-backed securities analysis. The PIMCO Total Return Fund, launched in 1987 under Gross, grew into the world's largest mutual fund, peaking above $290 billion in assets and making Gross the most famous bond investor alive, known in financial media as the Bond King.

Pacific Mutual spun PIMCO off as a separate entity in the mid-1990s before Allianz acquired its majority stake in 2000 for approximately $3.3 billion, part of the German insurer's push into asset management. The purchase was structured to preserve PIMCO's operational independence, a condition Gross insisted upon.

The firm's hardest period came in 2013 and 2014. Performance struggles and widely reported management conflict culminated in co-founder and CEO Mohamed El-Erian's resignation in early 2014 and Gross's abrupt departure to Janus Capital that September. Billions in client assets followed Gross out the door. Under new CEO Manny Roman, installed in 2016, and CIO Dan Ivascyn, the firm stabilized, rebuilt its leadership bench, and expanded into alternatives, private credit, real estate through PIMCO Prime Real Estate, and active ETFs, where it is now the world's largest active ETF manager.

As of September 30, 2026, the firm manages $2.29 trillion in total assets across fixed income, equities, alternatives, and multi-asset strategies, serving central banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension plans, and individual investors through 24 global offices.