Financial and Investment Manager Career Description
Financial and investment managers carefully plan companies' capital requirements and then decide upon the best way to finance these requirements in order to maximize the wealth of shareholders.
What am I going to do in this occupation?
Financial managers are usually appointed as heads of the financial divisions of companies. The financial division of a company is responsible for recording, analysing and interpreting financial information. Financial reports are then made available to people concerned such as the managing director of the company, the bank manager and the shareholders of the company.
The financial division compiles the annual and other budgets. In addition, this division is also responsible for the completion and submission of the entity's tax returns as well as the treasury function. They must ensure that the capital needs of the company are financed in the right amount, at the right time and at the lowest cost. Through proper risk management they must also ensure that the risk involved is minimised. Financial managers control these functions in the financial divisions of companies. They set cost-standards for companies and regularly check the actual performance of the companies against these standards.
The work of investment managers is closely related to that of financial managers. These two positions are therefore mostly combined. Investment managers are especially involved in determining the best means of investing fixed assets and financial resources, considering the risk of the use of various investment alternatives. The field of investment management consists of the following markets: money, capital, shares, futures and options, poverty and foreign exchange.
Requirements
What kind of personality do I need?
Persons interested in this career should be good at mathematics and has to be concerned about detail, tidiness and correctness. They must be careful, think twice about various alternatives and act with integrity.
Prospective financial and investment managers must have the personality to negotiate with role-players in the financial and capital markets.
Where can I work?
Every large organisation requires the services of a financial and/ or investment manager.
Can I work for myself in this occupation?
Persons who received tertiary training as financial and investment managers· and who have business skills and initiative, can start a business of almost any kind as they would have learned all the important business foundations in their training. Some people actually have self-employment in mind when they choose this career. Other options for selfemployment are acting as financial and investment consultants, insurance brokers, property consultants and stockbrokers.
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