Difference between Asset Management vs Investment Management?
Hi Chimps,
Just wanted to understand the difference in terms of job duties, between an Asset Manager vs Investment Manager?
I've been offered an entry level position in an AM department for a large global fund, however my background is in Credit Research, and was hoping to apply some of my skills in this new role, although the JD received is pretty much fund admin & management tasks and relationship management, rather than defining and researching investment strategies to run the fund.
Any suggestion? I thought AM= PM... Also would you take it even if it is not much research focused, and more ''housekeeping'' of assets and funds, just for the name of the fund, and then transition into some smaller private debt shop at a higher rank?
In Asset Management (AM) , there are essentially two silos. Managing money (PM, Research team, etc) and The Distribution of the managed money. Just about everything else is operations based. Depending on the shop, there may be some crossover or not. The crossover would be limited to distribution having a deep knowledge and understanding of the firm's investment process, products, etc, Distribution could be dealing with institutional clients and their CIOs (Pensions, Central Banks, Endowments, Large Corps) so they have to know a lot more about actual investing than the retail advisor who is dealing with kitchen table clients. Again depending on the shop, Distribution may be required or heavily suggested to have their CFA. But they will not be involved in actual PM or Research activities. They have to understand it, but they don't do it. They also have to understand, in a pretty detailed manner, asset allocation. That's probably where the crossover ends.
Both channels can be quite lucrative.