Having access to a global investment manager database in pdf format can be hugely beneficial for investors and finance professionals. With comprehensive information on firms and key personnel worldwide, it enables conducting searches across different countries and regions to identify suitable investment managers. However, quality databases often come at a high cost and may not be affordable to individual investors. This article explores paths to find free global investment manager databases in pdf format, and how investors can make the most of such resources.
Leverage academic and non-profit databases
Many academic institutions and non-profit organizations provide free access to global investment manager databases for research purposes. For instance, universities like Harvard and Chicago Booth have published seminal studies on the investment management industry using proprietary datasets. Beyond published papers, contacting the researchers behind these studies with a specific request can sometimes lead to gaining access to the database itself. Similarly, organizations like EDHEC-Risk Institute and Yale ICF have released manager databases for academic use. Investors may be able to obtain them by emailing and demonstrating research need.
Search within fund databases
While not dedicated investment manager databases, resources that comprehensively cover mutual funds and ETFs also contain key information on the asset management firms behind them. For instance, sites like Morningstar and Lipper Leaders allow screening and exporting fund-level data into Excel/pdf formats. By sorting and filtering on the management company, investors can analyze attributes like assets under management, investment strategies, and performance track records of hundreds of asset managers worldwide. This provides a good starting point to identify well-performing managers in a specific asset class or region of interest.
Look for compiled lists and directories
Some organizations and websites aimed at investment professionals compile and publish downloadable directories of asset management firms and their key decision makers. For example, Money Management Executive produces a yearly listing of top 50 global investment managers by AUM that is available for purchase in Excel format. Similarly, industry forums and associations like CFA Institute also release compiled lists of managers focused on certain countries and specializations like ETFs or alternatives. While not as comprehensive as full-fledged databases, these compiled lists are quite useful for getting an overview of major players.
Combine data from multiple free sources
Since comprehensive global investment manager databases are hard to find for free, a viable alternative is to combine data from various disparate sources mentioned above. For instance, fund databases can be used to shortlist the top performers, academic papers and nonprofit databases can provide additional attributes, while directories fill in contact information. Manually compiling data from multiple free sources to create a custom list of managers worldwide is laborious but can serve most individual investor needs.
While paid databases provide convenience, determined investors can find and compile the required information on global investment managers from various free sources. Academic databases, fund databases, non-profit resources and directories can be tapped for global coverage. With some work, a basic but functional database covering key details on managers and strategies can be created without incurring high costs.