Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for Investment Analyst

financial analyst working on laptop

An Investment Analyst is a professional who develops analytics and recommendations based on the investment data. They monitor investment products and portfolios and produce financial reports. In this blog post we describe the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Investment Analysts.

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Main Responsibilities of Investment Analyst

The following list describes the typical responsibilities of an Investment Analyst:

Analyze

  • Analyze fund holdings for potential investment / co-investment and emerging industry trends.

  • Analyze investment projects.

  • Analyze large data amounts flowing into the internal database.

  • Analyze large money movements and communication to fund management firms.

  • Analyze new requests for information and determine efficiencies for providing data.

  • Analyze performance relative to various indexes, competitor peer groups and market benchmarks.

Assess

Assess corporate actions including tenders or other changes to the terms or conditions of investment.

Assist in

  • Assist and / or coordinate external communications.

  • Assist during closing and funding to facilitate placement of new investments.

  • Assist in analyzing new origination opportunities in lending and equity investments.

  • Assist in the analysis, management, operation and disposition of REO investments.

  • Assist in the completion of due diligence of new private equity fund commitments.

  • Assist in the development of monthly loan and investment reports.

  • Assist in the due diligence and monitoring process of external hedge fund managers.

  • Assist in the due diligence process on external hedge fund managers.

  • Assist in the preparation of presentations targeted at senior management.

  • Assist on special projects (internal projects / client specific / data input).

  • Assist the APM and PM in the maintenance of portfolios.

  • Assist with annual operating budgets for a corporate group of companies.

  • Assist with daily portfolio management and monitoring of the total fund.

  • Assist with special projects as assigned.

  • Assist with the generation of all marketing materials including comprehensive offering memorandums.

  • Assist with the selection and due diligence on listed shares and ETFs.

Assume

Assume responsibility for an existing portfolio consistent with experience and team needs.

Attend

  • Attend meetings with existing and prospective credit managers.

  • Attend meetings with management of companies.

Build

  • Build and maintains dashboards and measures team performance metrics.

  • Build and optimize financial models for new Renewable technologies and markets.

  • Build dashboards to support monitoring, screening, and decision-making across strategies.

Collaborate with

Collaborate with the Multi-Asset Solutions Team in all aspect related to financial engineering.

Communicate

  • Communicate findings to investors.

  • Communicate with clients about investment products.

Compile

Compile and maintain documentation of processes and policies.

Complete

Complete annual reviews on the performance of existing private equity fund commitments.

Conduct

  • Conduct ad hoc quantitative analyses as required.

  • Conduct due diligences and evaluate investment opportunities together with industry experts.

  • Conduct on-site due diligences of financial institutions in South Asia.

  • Conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis utilizing Mercer proprietary tools.

  • Conduct quantitative feasibility analysis on new markets, participants, projects and trends.

  • Conduct research studies and provides training and guidance for less seasoned analysts.

  • Conduct risk forecast analysis on existing portfolio and new assets / markets.

Contribute to

  • Contribute subject matter expertise to Vanguard's external publications.

  • Contribute to all aspects of deal-flow, from sourcing to evaluation of potential investments.

  • Contribute to departmental strategy development under the guidance of the department head.

  • Contribute to team investment process and contribute to team management of assets.

Convey

Convey information clearly and effectively through both verbal and written communication.

Coordinate

  • Coordinate receipt and review of key source documents as required.

  • Coordinate team communication and updates to ensure alignment.

  • Coordinate with internal functions including Treasury and Operations.

Create

  • Create and maintain performance reporting.

  • Create proforma worksheets for current and future buildings.

Define

  • Define and deliver consistent ongoing c communication and engagement plan.

  • Define investment philosophy and strategy.

Derivative

Derivative and Collateral Management.

Develop

  • Develop analytics, driving meaningful insights and develops recommendations based on the data.

  • Develop and maintain value proposition, marketing plan and branding within chosen market.

  • Develop complex financial models and analyse legal documents.

  • Develop compliant and compelling investment review presentations for Plan Sponsors.

  • Develop financial models and perform data / investment analysis.

  • Develop, implement and use tools for managing and analyzing financial portfolio.

  • Develop, in conjunction with the Property Operations Group, an operating and capital budget.

  • Develop models related to econometrics, time series analysis, valuation, or optimization.

  • Develop questions and / or comments that are relevant to the risks associated with the transaction.

  • Develop recommendations on new research topics or methodology issues.

  • Develop schedule and format of any ongoing research needs that may be requested by internal clients.

  • Develop sophisticated dynamic financial models to analyze the investment opportunities.

  • Develop supporting documentation and meets with clients to deliver findings and recommendations.

  • Develop thought leadership and investment content for Vanguard's product line-up.

Draft

  • Draft analysis write up and provide to Associate for review and completion.

  • Draft reports and notes on relevant investment decisions and pertinent market news.

Edit

Edit and refine analysis based on feedback.

Engage

Engage with a pool of sector experts to identify opportunities and facilitate research.

Enhance

Enhance and maintain Asset Scenario Analysis Tool (ASAT).

Ensure

  • Ensure reporting is sent out in a timely manner to key stakeholders.

  • Ensure that any issues are escalated to the team leader within an appropriate time frame.

Establish

Establish a transparent pricing policy that effectively captures value delivered to clients.

Explore

Explore alternative markets for the purposes of implementing systematic strategies.

Follow

Follow and analyze Venture Capital market trends.

Formulate

Formulate, produce and distribute regular marketing collateral and maintain relevant databases.

Foster

Foster relationships with various portfolio management teams to effectively do so.

Fund

Fund performance reporting for Plan Sponsors.

Gather

Gather additional assets from existing client base.

Handle

Handle special projects as assigned.

Help

  • Help advance the early phase of the recently launched Teachers' Innovation Platform.

  • Help managers prepare recommendations for new clients.

  • Help us create value for our portfolio.

Identify

  • Identify and articulate potential opportunities and issues with each prospective investment.

  • Identify target client segment / market niche and establish strong reputation within markets.

Improve

Improve business processes and controls to mitigate operational risks.

Interact with

Interact with fund managers, and internal investment support team to provide high quality service.

Investigate

Investigates and evaluates the application of new technologies and tools.

Keep

  • Keep those ambitions in sight and imagine where JLL can take you....

  • Keep up-to-date on sector, country and market developments and trends.

  • Keep up to date with the market and the risks of the total fund.

Lead

  • Lead and produce detailed investor reports, investment memos, and other written communications.

  • Lead manager of and oversight of third party and internal databases.

  • Lead sourcing and initial screening of fintech opportunities.

  • Lead various (investment) projects from inception to launch.

Leverage

Leverage deal specific cash flow models and large data set analysis tools as appropriate.

Liaise

  • Liaise with clients throughout all stages of the listing / marketing process.

  • Liaise with research providers.

Maintain

  • Maintain and update financial models and databases.

  • Maintain and update our investor portal.

  • Maintain and update reporting systems.

  • Maintain a universe of companies with meaningful and growing exposure.

  • Maintain issuer information and data to ensure the efficiency of the DGAM IR team's analysis process.

  • Maintain research & transaction database.

Manage

Manage workload and relationships in a flexible, dynamic and proactive manner.

Meet

Meet with fee-earner and / or Associate to discuss assumptions and scenarios for analysis.

Monitor

  • Monitor bond market activity across all securitized fixed income markets.

  • Monitor industry trends and assess their impact on portfolio positions.

  • Monitor investment products and portfolios.

  • Monitor large dollar amounts of investment pools to determine non-compliance.

  • Monitor pooled life insurance policies for compliance.

Perform

  • Perform ad hoc projects as necessary to support senior analysts.

  • Perform ad hoc research projects.

  • Perform a variety of investment-related, ad-hoc projects as needed for our clients.

  • Perform detailed methodology audits and makes recommendations on changes.

  • Perform due diligence on prospective new products and projects.

  • Perform necessary analysis and provide to fee-earner for review.

  • Perform relative value analysis.

  • Perform research and analysis on various industries and companies.

  • Perform research on other investment managers such as endowments and sovereign wealth funds.

Plan

Plan and execute trades and ensure all trades are in line with requirements of client mandates.

Prepare

  • Prepare and analyze investment data for strategic review.

  • Prepare and analyze investment data for strategic review by the President.

  • Prepare and present investment recommendations and memos to internal committees, as required.

  • Prepare cost-to-date and cost-to-complete summaries with the accounting team.

  • Prepare internal support materials and written recommendations to the Credit Underwriting Committee.

  • Prepare investor reporting as needed.

  • Prepare lender and purchaser deposit packages for project financing.

  • Prepare monthly / quarterly investment reports for internal and external sources.

  • Prepare reports for the Investment Committee and the Board of Directors.

Present

Present the investment process to prospective clients.

Produce

  • Produce and maintain technical documentation of processes, procedures, methodologies, and models.

  • Produce financial reports.

  • Produce opportunity memo under supervision.

  • Produce periodic analysis and reporting.

  • Produce quarterly performance reports for our clients.

Provide

  • Provide educational and marketing content to support business development efforts.

  • Provide end-of-month reports for management's review.

  • Provide final analysis to fee-earner or other party if included as part of overall presentation.

  • Provide input to business requirements through the gathering and inputting of data onto systems.

  • Provide remittance and corrections to servicers.

  • Provide supervision to junior staff as necessary.

Reconcile

Reconcile daily cash movements to the banks internal systems.

Record

Record incoming deal flow and manage the investment opportunities pipeline.

Research

  • Research and implement analytical tools to track risk and performance.

  • Research and implement tools (Matlab, Excel, C#) related to risk and portfolio analysis.

  • Research includes rigorous excel-based financial modeling, management meetings, asset visits, etc..

  • Research new deal opportunities.

  • Research non-compliance issues and discrepancies.

Respond to

Respond to developments in the industry regarding the standardizing of data in databases.

Review

  • Review and summarize due diligence materials.

  • Review budget assumptions and assisting with revenue & expense assumptions.

  • Review marketing materials of transactions to screen for investment opportunities.

  • Review offering memos received from various fund managers.

  • Review, understand and advise on due diligence materials for acquisitions and investments.

Source

Source and analyze new strategies and managers.

Stay up to date

  • Stay ahead of the newly-emerging systems and execution venues and make recommendations.

  • Stay up to date on the latest economic news.

Support

  • Support bookkeepers in general journal entries and complex transactions.

  • Support companies after the financing round.

  • Support continuous improvements in processes and functions to increase department's efficiencies.

  • Support internal client requests on ad hoc research projects.

  • Support Investment Managers with site analysis and partnership negotiations.

  • Support management of transactions from the Closing Date through final-true up / stabilization.

  • Support Marketing Specialists, as required, for creative interpretation of financial analysis.

  • Support partners with moving towards decision making based on thorough due diligence.

  • Support sales and service teams by providing investment analysis and fund mappings.

  • Support senior team in due diligence, deal execution and investment documentation.

  • Support the onboarding of new investment providers to the group mutual fund platform.

Take

  • Take ownership of financial modeling and drafting investment memos for new investment opportunities.

  • Take responsibility for creating, up-dating and maintaining documentation of processes and controls.

Translate

Translate and conveys impact of process and system changes.

Work with

  • Work closely with developers, installers, and partners to evaluate new solar project opportunities.

  • Work collaboratively with the HCE team to build an understanding of the business.

  • Work on ad-hoc projects and reporting as required.

  • Work on ad hoc thematic projects.

  • Work pro-actively individually, and collaboratively within the team.

  • Work to improve the processes and technologies surrounding the trade lifecycle.

  • Work with existing models developed by colleagues to incorporate new data and verify results.

  • Work with in-house and external counsel, to satisfactorily document amendments and new transactions.

  • Work with internal Investments teams and sell side parties to facilitate credit research.

  • Work with investment analysis teams globally to ensure consistency in analytics.

  • Work with management teams to implement initiatives and strategic decisions.

  • Work with third party vendors to gather and maintain data.

Most In-demand Hard Skills

The following list describes the most required technical skills of an Investment Analyst:

  1. Finance

  2. MS Excel

  3. Economics

  4. MS Powerpoint

  5. Accounting

  6. Investment Banking

  7. Mathematics

  8. MS Word

  9. Private Equity

  10. Portfolio Management

  11. Python

  12. Consulting

  13. Financial Markets

  14. Financial Modeling

  15. Capital Markets

  16. Real Estate

  17. Academic Performance

  18. Business

  19. Bloomberg

  20. Employee Polygraph Protection

  21. Statistics

  22. Transaction Services

  23. Valuation Analysis

  24. VBA

  25. Corporate Development

Most In-demand Soft Skills

The following list describes the most required soft skills of an Investment Analyst:

  1. Written and oral communication skills

  2. Analytical ability

  3. Interpersonal skills

  4. Attention to detail

  5. Organizational capacity

  6. Problem-solving attitude

  7. Quantitative

  8. Self-motivated

  9. Collaborative

  10. Integrity

  11. Multi-task

  12. Work independently with little direction

  13. Curious

  14. Professionalism

  15. Communications

  16. Team player

  17. Work ethic

  18. Detail-oriented

  19. Critical thinker

  20. Presentation

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