Asset Manager Job Description & Profile

Job Description for Asset Managers

As the name suggests, asset managers look after or manage a company’s assets. These assets can be of any type—physical, digital, or financial. As one can imagine, the skill set needed to manage different kinds of support can vary. For example, managing financial assets requires an understanding of investment portfolios and theories. At the same time, managing physical assets requires understanding how to manage real estate portfolios or other depreciating assets, such as a transport fleet of trucks.

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As a result, the broad category of assets that asset managers are supposed to manage would serve as the basis for their job description. The following tasks are typical of most asset management positions:

Analysis and Valuations

Asset managers may be required to perform a lot of analysis on the existing or potential assets the company is interested in acquiring. Before the first asset purchase, research should determine the potential lifetime worth of the item for the business. The decision to purchase an asset over other competing investments is made based on such analyses.

This analysis can be complicated based on the size of the acquisition. For example, acquiring a significant real estate asset would require thoroughly examining the various market forces, the cost of capital, the cash flow generated by the investment, including making predictions for several years, and other factors.

Due Diligence and Negotiations

Due diligence can also be cumbersome, especially for certain high-value real estate assets. Although financial assets are often standardised, contractual notes are evaluated. For physical purchases, due diligence can be quite a drawn-out process, and asset managers would lead this process along with any third parties assigned explicitly for this purpose.

Once the due diligence process is complete, the actual negotiation process begins. The asset manager’s role here would depend upon the acquisition size and the company’s structure.

Liaising and Coordinating

Asset managers must spend a lot of time liaising with dozens of vendors and internal stakeholders. They are usually the main point of contact for one of their vendors. While some vendor contracts are managed through detailed service-level agreements, there are usually a lot of ad hoc requests that require tact and diplomacy to handle.

Coordination with internal departments, especially finance and operations, is also a daily task. Asset managers are essential in ensuring that problems with assets they are responsible for do not affect operations.

Operating Plans and Budgets

Asset managers would also be expected to prepare a detailed plan for the operations of various assets. For example, if the investment is a fleet of trucks for transporting the company’s raw materials or finished products, then the asset manager would need to ensure enough of them to meet the company’s needs and plan for any eventuality.

Preparing the budgets for the maintenance of any assets would also fall under the purview of the asset manager.

Monitoring and Reporting on the Health of the Portfolio

Asset managers must also monitor the health and performance of their portfolios continuously. This analysis must then be shared with management or critical stakeholders at a predetermined frequency.

Training and Leadership

A group of professionals may support the asset manager, depending on the size of the organisation and the assets under management. In that case, the asset manager would be responsible for providing the relevant training to all the direct reports. These professionals might be maintenance staff or asset managers who specialise in handling specific types of assets.

Learn More About a Career as an Asset Manager:

The following articles cover the Qualifications, Skills and requirements, Salaries, CV Building Tips, and How to Become.

Search Jobs to find out about the asset manager job roles we currently have available.

See also Operations Manager Job Description and Profile for reference here.