Mutual Funds & Fund Management

A mutual fund is a type of investment company that takes in funds from investors and collectively invests those assets in stocks, bonds or money market instruments.

Individuals and legal entities may invest in a mutual fund by purchasing shares issued by the fund. A mutual fund raises cash via the sale of shares, which are then used to invest in their portfolio of stocks, bonds and other securities.

Through the aggregate investments of the mutual fund, each investor shares in the returns from the fund's portfolio and benefits from professional management, liquidity, diversification, affordability and strict regulation.

The mutual funds industry is the second most important financial group in the US in terms of asset size being slightly larger than the insurance industry and slightly smaller than the commercial banking industry.

Mutual funds have been the fastest growing sector in US financial institutions industry history throughout the 1990's and into the 2000's.

The significance of mutual funds is illustrated by the numbers:

• In the US 91 million individuals representing 53 million households have invested in mutual funds.
• US mutual funds hold $11.6 trillion in over 8,100 funds.
• Mutual funds hold $17.9 trillion in retirement market assets.
• Worldwide mutual fund assets totaled $13.96 trillion held by 261 million investors.
• 44% of US households own mutual funds with a median holding of $120,000.

The Mutual Funds & Fund Management industry model set consists of Enterprise, Business Area, and Data Warehouse logical data models designed to provide a comprehensive data architecture for both public mutual funds and institutional funds.