Financial jobs and Middle East & Africa financial careers in Investment Consulting. Browse available job offers and apply online

Investment consultant jobs will involve first working with trustees or other fiduciaries to analyse their investment goals and learn how their funds are governed. Investment consultants want to understand what level of performance the trustees expect and their sensitivity to risk. The consultants then develop liability plans and profiles that enable them to recommend an acceptable investment policy.

Increasingly, however, investment consultants are required to implement the advice they give, which places them in direct competition with fund managers.

Investment consulting careers usually fall into one of two main categories:

Asset allocation - Asset allocation specialists advise clients on whether to invest in equities, bonds, private equity funds or alternative asset classes in order to generate the returns they need to pay pensions over the next thirty years or more. Asset allocation roles are complex and use mathematical models to arrive at the right outcome.

Fund selection - Fund selection specialists spend much of their time analysing individual asset managers, and their products and asking questions about their investment strategy. They will scrutinise the performance of the pension funds' portfolio, producing regular reports on its strengths and weaknesses.

Those working in asset allocation positions will come equipped with an actuarial qualification. Actuarial jobs include using statistical modelling used to create forecasts used to mitigate against future risks to potential investments. They will calculate future liabilities and use these projections to advise companies on how to best structure their pension scheme.

Senior investment consultants work in the fund selection division and tend to have the most interaction with clients. Senior consultants make presentations to clients in order to explain the logic behind the investment strategy they have designed in collaboration with other team members, outline its performance and deal with any issues that arise. A single investment consultant will always have a portfolio of clients.

Most fund selection consultants will be expected to have a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) qualification or equivalent.

Investment consulting roles will also be supported by a team of investment analysts; a more junior position which involves little client interaction. Their role is primarily research - drafting investment policies, constructing statistics for client presentations, analysing investment performance of portfolios and producing reports for clients, on a monthly and/or quarterly basis.

Increasingly, as investment consultants have grown into large international companies, they have also recruited more for support and compliance roles.