finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

, global assets under management consists of

assets In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that can b ...

held by

institutional investors An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase security (finance), securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, s ...

and individual investors around the world. For example, these

include asset management firms,

pension funds A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the world' ...

, endowments, foundations,

sovereign wealth funds A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as private equity ...

hedge funds A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that holds liquid assets and that makes use of complex trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and insulate returns from market risk. Among these portfolio techniq ...

, and private equity funds. In contrast, individual investors include ultra high-net-worth individuals (UHNWI), high-net-worth individuals (HNWI), the mass affluent, and other retail investors.

Assets by classification

* Around one third of private wealth is incorporated in conventional investment management (Pension funds, Mutual funds and Insurance assets). * Many surveys systematically overestimate the global wealth pool. This is because they fail to separate out assets that are inaccessible for wealth management services (e.g. pension assets, real estate, dedicated liquidity, etc.)

Assets by region

Assets by company

Key

* AM — Asset management firm * FOREX —

Foreign exchange reserves Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, ...

* HF —

Hedge fund A hedge fund is a Pooling (resource management), pooled investment fund that holds Market liquidity, liquid assets and that makes use of complex trader (finance), trading and risk management techniques to aim to improve investment performance and ...

* MF — (Exchange Traded)

Mutual fund A mutual fund is an investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase Security (finance), securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICAV in ...

* PEN —

Pension fund A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any program, fund, or scheme which provides pension, retirement income. The U.S. Government's Social Security Trust Fund, which oversees $2.57 trillion in assets, is the ...

* PE —

Private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

* SWF —

Sovereign wealth fund A sovereign wealth fund (SWF), or sovereign investment fund, is a state-owned investment fund that invests in real and financial assets such as stocks, Bond (finance), bonds, real estate, precious metals, or in alternative investments such as ...

* UHNWI — (Billionaire)

Ultra high-net-worth individual Ultra may refer to: Science and technology * Ultra (cryptography), the codename for cryptographic intelligence obtained from signal traffic in World War II * Adobe Ultra, a vector-keying application * Sun Ultra series, a brand of computer work ...

Companies

Discretionary vs Non-Discretionary Assets

Global assets under management include both discretionary and non-discretionary assets. However, there are important differences between these two types of assets. Industry standards and guidance to distinguish the two types has been established by

Global Investment Performance Standards The Certificate in Investment Performance Measurement (CIPM) is a professional accreditation in the field of investment performance analysis. It includes investment performance measurement and attribution. It is offered by the CIPM Association, ...

(GIPS). According to GIPS, discretion refers to the extent to which an organization, for example an asset manager, is permitted to manage the assets and implement its intended investment strategy on behalf of the asset owner. More specifically, discretion refers to the extent to which assets are permitted to be managed, and intended investment strategies are permitted to be implemented, through the decisions and actions of fund managers and general partners (GPs) at the asset manager. The asset owner ultimately owns the assets. For example, asset owners include institutional

limited partners A limited partnership (LP) is a type of partnership with general partners, who have a right to manage the business, and limited partners, who have no right to manage the business but have only limited liability for its debts. Limited partnership ...

(LPs), such as endowments, foundations,

, and

. If restrictions and limitations imposed by the asset owner significantly hinder the organization from fully implementing the intended investment strategy, the assets may be considered non-discretionary. There are degrees of discretion and not all restrictions and limitations will necessarily result in assets being considered non-discretionary. For example, if an asset owner requires that the organization avoid any tobacco-related investments, the organization would first consider if this restriction hinders the implementation of the intended strategy. If it does, the organization would likely classify these assets as non-discretionary.

Global assets under advisement

A concept related to global assets under management in the investment industry is global assets under advisement (AUA). This measures the total

market value Market value or OMV (open market valuation) is the price at which an asset would trade in a competitive auction setting. Market value is often used interchangeably with ''open market value'', ''fair value'' or '' fair market value'', although t ...

of the assets that are advised by a financial institution, which is often an investment consultant or other intermediary. In general, the advisory firm does not have discretion to manage the assets. Rather, in a non-discretionary manner, it provides advice and makes recommendations as to how those assets may be managed.

References

Sources

IMF - Global asset allocationTheCityUK - Fund managementMorgan Stanley - World's $165 trillion worth of traded securities
* http://www.sovereigninvestor.org The Sovereign Investment Council, a trade group for sovereign investors and financial firms that serve sovereign investment funds. {{Finance country lists Finance lists Investment management