A business or bank responsible for managing the securities portfolio of an individual or institutional investor. Typically, a money manager employs people with various expertise ranging from research and selection of investment options to monitoring the assets and deciding when to sell them. In return for a fee, the money manager has the fiduciary duty to choose and manage investments prudently for his or her clients, including developing an appropriate investment strategy, buying and selling securities to meet those goals. Also known as “portfolio manager” or “investment manager”.

You may benefit from the stock and bond markets by investing in mutual funds – pools of money contributed to by many people that are invested into a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and/or money market instruments to meet a specific investment objective. Purchasing mutual funds is a way to diversify your investments and balance risk without having to buy and track a variety of stocks and bonds. Plus, mutual funds are managed by full-time, professional money managers. While you don’t have to be a financial expert to understand mutual funds, you do need to acquaint yourself with some basic information such as the role of the fund in your portfolio, management fess and other expenses.

J.W. Cole Financial, our registered broker dealer, gives you access to a wide array of securities investing. There are several types of securities that can be held within one account:

• Stocks
• Bonds
• Mutual Funds
• Exchange-traded Funds (ETFs)
• Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
• Options

Cash management accounts with check writing and banking features are available for qualifying account types.

A Real Estate Investment Trust, also known as a “REIT” (pronounced “reet”), is a company whose primary business is owning and managing real estate properties such as office and industrial buildings, apartment buildings, hotels, warehouses, health care facilities, shopping malls, or golf courses.

Individual REITs may focus on one sector. While many REITs invest directly in these properties, some types of REITS can also invest in real estate related loans (such as mortgages). A hybrid type of REIT can invest in a combination of real properties and mortgages. Structurally, a REIT is set up as a company, shares of which may be purchased by investors. The management of the REIT company uses those pooled investment dollars to buy and manage an array of properties. Collectively, all shareholders own investment units of a trust that owns various properties.