Broking and managing money look similar from the outside and are treated very differently by regulators. The moment you make decisions on a client's behalf, rather than executing the ones they make themselves, you cross into investment management, and that brings its own permissions, obligations, and scrutiny.
If you are setting up an asset manager, a portfolio manager, or a discretionary management business, this is the licence that matters, and it is worth understanding what regulators are actually protecting before you apply.
Why it is regulated more tightly
A broker executes. A manager exercises judgement over someone else's capital. That discretion is exactly what regulators worry about, because the client is trusting you with decisions, not just access. So an investment-management authorisation tends to focus harder on competence, governance, conflicts of interest, and how client assets are safeguarded. It is a licence built around trust, and the regulator wants evidence that the trust is warranted.
What the licence lets you do
Depending on the jurisdiction and the permissions you hold, an investment-management licence typically allows you to manage portfolios on a discretionary basis, advise clients, and in many regimes manage or market funds. The exact scope varies, and matching the permission to what you actually intend to do is part of getting the application right rather than over-licensing for activities you will never run.
What regulators expect to see
The themes are consistent across serious regimes. Qualified, credible people running the firm. A governance structure that keeps client interests ahead of the firm's. Clear handling of conflicts. Proper safeguarding of client assets, usually through independent custody. And capital appropriate to the activities. None of this is box-ticking. It is the substance the licence is built on, and regulators can tell when it is real.
EU reach
In the EU, investment-management firms can benefit from the same passporting logic that applies to brokers: authorise in one member state, market across the bloc. For a manager with European ambitions, that single-market access is often the deciding factor in where to base.
New build or acquisition
As with broking, you can apply for a fresh authorisation or acquire an existing licensed manager. The trade-offs are the same: a new application gives you a clean, bespoke entity at the cost of time, while an acquisition can compress the timeline if the right entity exists and survives diligence.
BrokLicense licenses both brokerages and investment-management firms, by new application or acquisition, in the jurisdictions we cover. The right permission follows from the mandate, so the place to start is to outline the one you have in mind.