Asset management is the professional creation and management of financial portfolios by asset managers.
The aim of asset management is to achieve a higher return than an alternative investment at a given level of risk and/or b) minimize risk at a given level of return over a pre-defined period of time.
In this sense, asset management differs significantly from direct investment, in which investors take care of their assets themselves. In contrast to other types of investment, asset management is also not a transaction motive, as is the case, for example, with direct investment in individual securities, but an investment motive, whereby the investor(client) provides the asset manager with an amount of funds to invest on his/her behalf for a period of time in order to realize his/her expected return at a given risk level.