Assets under management is the total market value of client assets a firm manages with discretionary authority. It is the most quoted number in the industry and one of the least standardised.
Assets the firm actually manages, usually on a discretionary basis, valued at market. In the United States, firms report a regulatory version of this figure on Form ADV, which is defined more tightly than the marketing version.
Firms differ on whether they include non-discretionary accounts, assets they advise but do not manage, held-away accounts, and affiliated entities. Two firms quoting the same number can be counting materially different things.
This is why assets under advisement exists as a separate term, and why the two get conflated in marketing.
AUM rises and falls with markets. A firm that gained clients through a falling market can show a lower figure than the year before, and a firm that lost clients in a rising one can show a higher figure.
Net new assets is the number that describes the business. AUM describes the business and the market together.
Ask what is included, as of what date, and on what basis. A figure without a date is not a figure.
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