INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL OF THE FUTURE CHANGING ROLES, SKILLS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES

INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL OF THE FUTURE CHANGING ROLES, SKILLS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES

INDUSTRY 
TRENDS AND SIZE
Investment Industry Structure and Roles 
The investment industry ecosystem was discussed in Future State of the Investment 
Profession. We identified three major organizational types—asset owners, asset managers, 
and intermediaries—as described in more detail in Exhibit 2.

We are particularly interested in those investment professionals who 
are influential in decisions in such areas as investment strategy, 
portfolio construction, and trading; portfolio managers and research 
analysts make up a significant number of these. As core investment 
professionals, they are the central actors in the investment 
ecosystem, and they make intellectual capital contributions in 
several ways, including in the following critical functions: 
• At a macro level, investment professionals highlight return and 
risk opportunities across markets and asset classes, and they 
allocate capital accordingly. In doing so, they facilitate the 
transactions that connect ideas and opportunities with capital 
and navigate the uncertainty of markets that allows firms to 
generate returns. 

At a micro level, investment professionals give opinions and 
allocate capital based on the nature and quality of the ideas 
of the users of capital/providers of ideas, as well as contribute 
to other aspects of the investment system, such as asset/
security-specific issues. 
• At a trading level, investment professionals aid price discovery 
and liquidity. 
• Exhibit 3 provides a more detailed list of core investment 
professionals. 

Size and Growth of the 
Market for Investment 
Professionals
CFA Institute commissioned Mercer 
to conduct a market sizing study to 
ascertain the number of core investment 
professionals working globally. 
The total number of core investment 
professionals was estimated to be 
approximately 1.05 million at the end of 
2018, as shown in Exhibit 4.
Mercer projects that in 10 years, there 
will be 1.2 million core investment 
professionals. This equates to a 10-year 
growth rate of 16% (1.5% compound annual 
growth rate, or CAGR). The size and growth 
expectations vary greatly by market. 
Among the four largest markets, India 
and China are projected to have 10-year 
growth of approximately 33% and 26%, 
respectively (2.9% and 2.3% CAGR), and 
more developed markets like the United 
Kingdom and United States are projected 
to have 10-year growth of 10% and 9%, 
respectively (1.0% and 0.9% CAGR). 
Mercer’s projections are consistent with 
the findings from our industry leader 
survey, shown in Exhibit 5, in which 49% of 
respondents expect growth, 22% expect 
no growth, and 28% expect a decline in 
the number of investment professionals in 
the next 5–10 years. 

INVESTMENT PROFESSIONAL OF THE FUTURE CHANGING ROLES, SKILLS, AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES