Investment Management / Asset Management

Investment Management is a large and important global industry in its own right and is responsible for caretaking of trillions of dollars, euros, pounds and yen. Coming under the remit of financial services many of the world's largest companies are at least in part Investment Managers and employ millions of staff and create billions in revenue.

The term Investment Management will normally refer to the professional management of either securities (ie. shares, bonds etc) and/or assets (eg. real estate), to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of Investors. These investors may be institutions (insurance companies, pension funds etc) or private investors.

The term Asset Management is mainly used to refer to the Investment management of collective investments (eg. Mutual Funds). Investment Managers who specialise in advisory or discretionary management on behalf of private investors may often refer to their services as wealth management or portfolio management often within the context of "private banking". The provision of Investment Management services includes elements of financial analysis, asset selection, stock selection, plan implementation and ongoing monitoring of investments.