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Investment management is the professional management of various securities (shares, bonds etc.) and assets (e.g., real estate), to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors. Investors may be institutions (insurance companies, pension funds, corporations etc.) or private investors (both directly via investment contracts and more commonly via collective investment schemes e.g. mutual funds).

The term asset management is often used to refer to the investment management of collective investments, whilst the more generic fund management may refer to all forms of institutional investment as well as investment management for private investors. Investment managers who specialize in advisory or discretionary management on behalf of (normally wealthy) private investors may often refer to their services as wealth management or portfolio management often within the context of so-called "private banking".

The provision of 'investment management services' includes elements of financial analysis, asset selection, stock selection, plan implementation and ongoing monitoring of investments. Investment management is a large and important global industry in its own right responsible for caretaking of trillions of dollars, euro, 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.

Fund manager (or investment adviser) refers to both a firm that provides investment management services and an individual who directs fund management decisions

Philosophy, Process and People

The 3-P's (Philosophy, Process and People) are often used to describe the reasons why the manager is able to produce above average results.

• Philosophy refers to the over-arching beliefs of the investment organization. For example:
  (i) Does the manager buy growth or value shares (and why)?
  (ii) Does he believe in market timing (and on what evidence)?
  (iii) Does he rely on external research or does he employ a team of researchers? It is helpful if any and all of such fundamental beliefs are supported by proof-statements.
• Process refers to the way in which the overall philosophy is implemented. For example:
  (i) Which universe of assets is explored before particular assets are chosen as suitable investments?
  (ii) How does the manager decide what to buy and when?
  (iii) How does the manager decide what to sell and when?
  (iv) Who takes the decisions and are they taken by committee?
  (v) What controls are in place to ensure that a rogue fund (one very different from others and from what is intended) cannot arise?
• People refers to the staff, especially the fund managers. The questions are, Who are they? How are they selected? How old are they? Who reports to whom? How deep is the team (and do all the members understand the philosophy and process they are supposed to be using)? And most important of all, How long has the team been working together? This last question is vital because whatever performance record was presented at the outset of the relationship with the client may or may not relate to (have been produced by) a team that is still in place. If the team has changed greatly (high staff turnover or changes to the team), then arguably the performance record is completely unrelated to the existing team (of fund managers).