In finance, global assets under management consists of assets held by institutional investors and individual investors around the world. For example, these institutional investors include asset management firms, pension funds, endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds, 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.

• ^1 Around one third of private wealth is incorporated in conventional investment management (Pension funds, Mutual funds and Insurance assets).
• ^2 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.)^[14]

• AM — Asset management firm
• FOREX — Foreign exchange reserves
• HF — Hedge fund
• MF — (Exchange Traded) Mutual fund
• PEN — Pension fund
• PE — Private equity firm
• SWF — Sovereign wealth fund
• UHNWI — (Billionaire) Ultra high-net-worth individual

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 (GIPS).^[17] 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.^[18]

The asset owner ultimately owns the assets. For example, asset owners include institutional limited partners (LPs), such as endowments, foundations, pension funds, and sovereign wealth funds.^[19] 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.

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

• Assets under management

• IMF - Global asset allocation
• TheCityUK - Fund management^{[permanent dead link‍]}
• Morgan Stanley - World's $165 trillion worth of traded securities
• http://www.sovereigninvestor.org Archived 2009-08-20 at the Wayback Machine The Sovereign Investment Council, a trade group for sovereign investors and financial firms that serve sovereign investment funds.