If you are new to the world of investment, welcome. Looking into investment management means that you have already made your first wise financial decision. Too often, first-time investors attempt to dabble in various types of investments and quickly find themselves in hot water.
Building a portfolio through investment management is the best way to meet your financial goals and secure your future. And we have everything you need to know to get started.
What Exactly Is Investment Management?
Investors buy and sell assets and various types of investments. But investment management involves managing those assets, planning and strategizing before they are bought, while they are in your portfolio, and when it is time to let them go.
Investment management does not just look at today but rather creates a plan for wealth that will steadily grow to achieve future goals. How fast and how quickly you need to grow your portfolio is something that is discussed so that every investment move that is made is done with you in mind.
Let’s take a closer look at what you can expect with investment management services.
Planning and Goal-Setting
As mentioned, there is a lot of planning that takes place in investment management. After all, your consultant is managing your portfolio, not simply investing.
Are you planning for retirement? Are you looking to fund your child’s higher education? Are you interested in growing your portfolio fast by taking big risks? Or are you of the mindset that slow and steady wins the race?
There are so many reasons why people invest and ideas they have about doing so. This first phase of investment management is working closely together to fully understand your goals for your finances and determine what it is you are looking to achieve.
A formal Investment Policy Statement (IPS) will be drawn up to reflect the details of your plan, including your tolerance for risk.
Strategizing and Monitoring
Once the consultant knows what it is you are looking for, they will begin strategizing to find a way to reach your goals within the specified amount of time. This is all in accordance with the IPS, of course.
A plan will be put in place and investments will be selected that seem to be a good fit. This strategy may also involve letting go of current assets, too.
With investment management, monitoring the investments is vital to ensure that they are performing as expected in order to meet the goals while aligning with the IPS. Any changes that need to be made will be addressed.
Status Reporting
Finally, another very important phase of investment management involves meeting routinely with the consultant to go over the status of the portfolio.
This meeting gives you a chance to see what has been going on within your portfolio, whether or not it has been performing as intended, and decide if any changes need to be made.
Consider these meetings the ideal time to address any new goals or changes in timelines that may impact the IPS.
Finding the Right Investment Management Team
Is investment management right for you? Because you are placing your trust in your consultant, you want to make sure that it is someone who you can work closely with and feel confident that your goals were heard and understood.
Your investment management team should create an individualized plan to help you reach your specific goals, rather than following a broad investment plan.
And, of course, you will want to ensure that the team you choose has experience and references to back up what they do. Never put your money in the hands of someone without first doing your research.
The Investment Counsel Company is ranked as one of the Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors, offering wealth management services to those with $1,000,000 or more in investable assets.