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Studies & Degrees in Asset Management

Asset management is the professional management of money and investments on behalf of other people or institutions. An asset manager decides how the savings of clients are spread over shares, bonds, property and other assets, and tries to reach a stated goal within a stated level of risk. The clearest example is the investment fund. Spain's securities regulator, the CNMV, explains that a fund is created by a management company, which invests the contributions of many investors jointly in different financial assets, within limits set by regulation.

The term has a second meaning in engineering and public services, where it refers to managing physical assets such as networks, buildings and equipment over their life cycle. This page is about the financial meaning, also called investment management or portfolio management.

What students learn

Asset management is a specialisation within finance. Courses build on accounting, statistics and economics and then cover:

  • financial markets and the main asset classes: equities, fixed income, real estate and alternative investments
  • valuation of companies and securities
  • portfolio theory, asset allocation and performance measurement
  • risk management and derivatives
  • regulation, ethics and the duties of a manager towards clients
  • sustainable investing and the use of data and programming in investment decisions

Regulation is part of the subject because the sector is closely supervised. In the European Union, the UCITS Directive and the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD) together set the rules for fund management, according to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA); the AIFMD covers funds that are not UCITS, including hedge funds, private equity funds and real estate funds.

Qualifications and levels

  • Bachelor's degree. Asset management is seldom a bachelor's degree of its own. The usual first degree is finance, economics, business administration or a quantitative subject, with investment courses as electives. In the United States, financial analysts typically need a bachelor's degree in finance or a related field such as business, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  • Master's degree. Most dedicated programmes are at this level: a master's in finance, investment management or asset management, or an MBA with a finance specialisation. The Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that a master's degree in finance or business administration may improve an analyst's chances of becoming a portfolio or fund manager.
  • Professional certification. The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation is common among investment professionals. The CFA Program consists of three exams. To earn the charter, a candidate must pass all three, complete 4,000 hours of relevant work experience over at least three years and become a member of CFA Institute. The exams are selective: CFA Institute reports ten-year average pass rates of 41%, 45% and 52% for Levels I, II and III.
  • Short courses. Business schools and professional bodies run short courses on portfolio management, sustainable investing or private markets. These lead to a certificate from the provider, not to a degree.

Where to study asset management

SpainExchange lists three active schools for asset management: two in Spain and one in South Korea.

The two in Spain are the Barcelona and Madrid campuses of United International Business School (UIBS), a business school whose main campus is in Zurich, Switzerland. UIBS offers business and management programmes at bachelor's (BBA), master's (MBA) and doctorate (DBA) level. Students should ask the school which specialisations are available at each campus, in which language they are taught and what recognition the qualification has in the country where they plan to work.

KDI School of Public Policy and Management in South Korea is a graduate school of public policy that teaches in English. Its website gives a campus address in Sejong and currently lists six master's programmes by their abbreviations (MPP, MDP, MIPD, MPM, MDS and MPPM) and a PhD. None of them carries the name asset management, so applicants should ask the school which finance and investment courses its current programmes include.

Because few schools offer a degree with this exact name, it is worth looking at master's programmes in finance and investment as well, and comparing how much of the curriculum deals with portfolio management.

Careers

Graduates work for fund management companies, pension funds, insurers, private banks, family offices and sovereign wealth funds. Typical first jobs are research analyst, risk analyst, performance analyst or junior positions in client reporting and compliance. With experience, analysts may advance to become portfolio or fund managers, who select the mix of investments for a fund.

In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of financial analysts to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations. Giving investment advice and managing funds are regulated activities in most countries, so employers and supervisors may require specific licences or certificates in addition to a degree.

Frequently asked questions

Is asset management a degree or a specialisation?

Usually a specialisation. Most students take a first degree in finance, economics or business and specialise in asset management in a master's degree or through a professional certification.

Do I need the CFA to work in asset management?

It is not a legal requirement in general, but it is widely held in the sector. Earning the charter means passing three exams and completing 4,000 hours of relevant work experience over at least three years.

What is the difference between asset management and wealth management?

Asset management is about investing portfolios and funds, often for institutions or for many investors at once. Wealth management advises individual clients on their finances as a whole, of which investment is one part.