In financial accounting, assets are economic resources. Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset. Simply stated, assets represent ownership of value that can be converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).^[1]

The balance sheet of a firm records the monetary^[2] value of the assets owned by the firm. It is money and other valuables belonging to an individual or business.^[1] Two major asset classes are tangible assets and intangible assets. Tangible assets contain various subclasses, including current assets and fixed assets.^[3] Current assets include inventory, while fixed assets include such items as buildings and equipment.^[4]

Intangible assets are nonphysical resources and rights that have a value to the firm because they give the firm some kind of advantage in the market place. Examples of intangible assets are goodwill, copyrights, trademarks, patents and computer programs,^[4] and financial assets, including such items as accounts receivable, bonds and stocks.

Formal definition[link]

• An asset is a resource controlled by the entity as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity^[5] (Framework Par 49).

Asset characteristics[link]

Other than software companies^{[citation needed]} and the like - employees are not considered as assets, like machinery is, even though they are capable of producing value.

• The probable present benefit involves a capacity, singly or in combination with other assets, in the case of profit oriented enterprises, to contribute directly or indirectly to future net cash flows, and, in the case of not-for-profit organizations, to provide services;
• The entity can control access to the benefit;
• The transaction or event giving rise to the entity's right to, or control of, the benefit has already occurred.

In the financial accounting sense of the term, it is not necessary to be able to legally enforce the asset's benefit for qualifying a resource as being an asset, provided the entity can control its use by other means.

The accounting equation relates assets, liabilities, and owner's equity:

Assets = Liabilities + Stockholder's Equity (Owner's Equity)

That is, the total value of a firms Assets are always equal to the combined value of its "equity" and "liabilities."

The accounting equation is the mathematical structure of the balance sheet.

Assets are listed on the balance sheet. Similarly, in economics an asset is any form in which wealth can be held.

Probably the most accepted accounting definition of asset is the one used by the International Accounting Standards Board.^[6] The following is a quotation from the IFRS Framework: "An asset is a resource controlled by the enterprise as a result of past events and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the enterprise."^[7]

Assets are formally controlled and managed within larger organizations via the use of asset tracking tools. These monitor the purchasing, upgrading, servicing, licensing, disposal etc., of both physical and non-physical assets.^{[clarification needed]} In a company's balance sheet certain divisions are required by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), which vary from country to country.^[8]

Current assets[link]

Current assets are cash and other assets expected to be converted to cash, gold, or consumed either in a year or in the operating cycle (whichever is longer), without disturbing the normal operations of a business. These assets are continually turned over in the course of a business during normal business activity. There are 5 major items included into current assets:

1. Cash and cash equivalents — it is the most liquid asset, which includes currency, deposit accounts, and negotiable instruments (e.g., money orders, cheque, bank drafts).
2. Short-term investments — include securities bought and held for sale in the near future to generate income on short-term price differences (trading securities).
3. Receivables — usually reported as net of allowance for noncollectable accounts.
4. Inventory — trading these assets is a normal business of a company. The inventory value reported on the balance sheet is usually the historical cost or fair market value, whichever is lower. This is known as the "lower of cost or market" rule.
5. Prepaid expenses — these are expenses paid in cash and recorded as assets before they are used or consumed (a common example is insurance). See also adjusting entries.

Marketable securities Securities that can be converted into cash quickly at a reasonable price

The phrase net current assets (also called working capital) is often used and refers to the total of current assets less the total of current liabilities.

Long-term investments[link]

Often referred to simply as "investments". Long-term investments are to be held for many years and are not intended to be disposed of in the near future. This group usually consists of three types of investments:

1. Investments in securities such as bonds, common stock, or long-term notes.
2. Investments in fixed assets not used in operations (e.g., land held for sale).
3. Investments in special funds (e.g. sinking funds or pension funds).

Different forms of insurance may also be treated as long term investments.

Fixed assets[link]

Also referred to as PPE (property, plant, and equipment), these are purchased for continued and long-term use in earning profit in a business. This group includes as an asset land, buildings, machinery, furniture, tools,IT equipments like Laptop etc. and certain wasting resources e.g., timberland and minerals. They are written off against profits over their anticipated life by charging depreciation expenses (with exception of land assets). Accumulated depreciation is shown in the face of the balance sheet or in the notes.

These are also called capital assets in management accounting.

Intangible assets[link]

Intangible assets lack of physical substance and usually are very hard to evaluate. They include patents, copyrights, franchises, goodwill, trademarks, trade names, etc. These assets are (according to US GAAP) amortized to expense over 5 to 40 years with the exception of goodwill.

Websites are treated differently in different countries and may fall under either tangible or intangible assets.

Tangible assets[link]

Tangible assets are those that have a physical substance, such as currencies, buildings, real estate, vehicles, inventories, equipment, and precious metals (f.i. gold)

Comparison : current assets , liquid assets and absolute liquid assets[link]

See also[link]

• Trading account assets

References[link]

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (May 2011)

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Anthony Scaramucci is an American financier, entrepreneur, and author. He is the founder and current managing partner of SkyBridge Capital.

Scaramucci graduated from Tufts University in 1986 with a degree in economics, and later received his J.D. from Harvard Law School.^[1] Upon graduating from Harvard, he accepted an offer at Goldman Sachs in their Private Wealth Management division. He then founded his own hedge fund, Oscar Capital Management, which he sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001. When Neuberger Berman was acquired by Lehman Brothers in 2003, he stayed on and served as Managing Director in their Investment Management division.

After selling Oscar Capital Management, Scaramucci founded SkyBridge Capital in 2005 to be an incubator to growing hedge fund businesses, seeding the best global talent. In 2010 Skybridge acquired the Citigroup Alternative Investment - Hedge Fund Management Group, expanding the SkyBridge range of product offerings, particularly in the fund of funds space.

In an Opalesque.TV interview, Anthony describes his motivations for SkyBridge’s evolution from seeder to integrated asset manager with a dual fund of funds/seeding model. Along with a collection of well-established managers in the fund of funds platform, Anthony talks about the need to maintain a “venture capital approach” in seeding the best talent in emerging managers, trying to find the “next Ray Dalio or Dan Och”.

Scaramucci published an autobiography, Goodbye, Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul, in 2010, and made a brief appearance in Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps.

Scaramucci serves on the board of The Lymphoma Foundation and The Brain Tumor Foundation. He is also on the Board of Overseers for the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University and a member of the NYC Financial Services Advisory Committee.

References[link]

Ray Dalio (born in 1949 in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, United States^[1]) is an American businessman and founder of Bridgewater Associates.

Early Life and Education[link]

The son of a jazz musician, Dalio began investing at age 12 when he bought shares of Northeast Airlines for $300 and tripled his investment after the airline merged with another company.^[2]

Dalio received a BA from Long Island University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.^[2]

Career[link]

After completing his education, Dalio worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and invested in commodity futures.^[2] He later worked as the Director of Commodities at Dominick & Dominick LLC.^[3] In 1974, he became a futures trader and broker at Shearson Hayden Stone.^[2] In 1975, he founded the investment management firm, Bridgewater Associates. As of January 2012, the company is the largest hedge fund in the world with nearly $120 billion under management.^[2]

Ray Dalio has written a pdf called "Principles" to share his life and business management principles with his employees.^[4]

Personal[link]

Dalio is a practitioner of the Transcendental Meditation technique and resides with his wife in Greenwich, CT.^[5][6][2] According to Forbes he is the 44th richest person in America and the 88th richest person in the world with a net worth of $10 billion as of March 2012.^[7] Dalio has been labeled as the Steve Jobs of investing.^[8]

Notes[link]

1. ^ Cassidy, John (25 July 2011). "Mastering the Machine". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/25/110725fa_fact_cassidy?printable=true&currentPage=all#ixzz1ShhRHYRm. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Pursuing Self-Interest in Harmony With the Laws of the Universe and Contributing to Evolution is Universally Rewarded" Kevin Roose, April 10, 2011, New York Magazine
3. ^ "Radical Transparency" 2010, Leaders Magazine. Volume 33, Number 3
4. ^ Dalio, Ray (2011). "Ray Dalio’s Principles". http://www.bwater.com/Uploads/FileManager/Principles/Bridgewater-Associates-Ray-Dalio-Principles.pdf. 
5. ^ Opalesque (8 January 2008). "Ray Dalio’s winning strategy". http://www.opalesque.com/fullarticle/41340/ray%20dalio/main_reason_reason470.html. 
6. ^ Comstock, Courtney (October 25, 2010). "Ray Dalio Is Too Modest To Admit He Returned 38% YTD Using Transcendental Meditation". Business Insider. http://www.businessinsider.com/ray-dalio-transcendental-meditation-david-lynch-2010-10. 
7. ^ Ray Dalio Forbes profile page Forbes.com. Retrieved January 2012.
8. ^ aiCIO. "Is Ray Dalio the Steve Jobs of Investing?". Retrieved 13 December 2011.

External links[link]

• Profile at Forbes
• Ray Dalio on Charlie Rose
• "Most Influential 50 People in Global Finance" Bloomberg Markets Magazine, September 7, 2011
• "Mastering the Machine" New Yorker, July 25, 2011
• "In Punishing Year for Hedge Funds, Biggest One Thrived" New York Times, Dealbook, January 26, 2012
• "Ray-man running hedge fund in his own image" Financial Times, March 2, 2012

Daniel Och at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in 2009

Daniel Och is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group, a global hedge fund and alternative asset management firm.

As of March 5, 2008, Och's net worth was $3.6 billion, the 296th on The World's Billionaires list published by Forbes.^[1] Receiving $918,939,482 total compensation in 2008, he was the highest paid executive on The Globe Opinion's executive compensation list in 2008.^[2]

Early life[link]

Och is the son of Golda and Dr. Michael Och. Och attended the Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union in West Orange, New Jersey, a Jewish day school founded by his parents.^[3] In December 2010, Och donated 15 million dollars to the school effectively doubling its endowment.^[4]

Och has a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.^[5]

Career[link]

In 1982, Och began his career at Goldman Sachs in the Risk Arbitrage Department. He was later the Head of Proprietary Trading in the Equities Division and Co-Head of U.S. Equities Trading. He worked at Goldman Sachs for 11 years.^[5]

In 1994, Och founded Och-Ziff Capital Management Group with $100 million initial investment from the Ziff brothers, heirs to publishing magnate William Bernard Ziff, Jr.^[1] Och-Ziff completed an initial public offering in 2007, listing its shares on the New York Stock Exchange initially at a price of $32.00. The company's stock has declined significantly since the IPO, reaching its year-to-date low of $3.98 on November 20, 2008.^[6]

Och also sits on the board of Endeavor.

Personal life[link]

Och is married with three children. He is the Vice Chair of Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization fighting poverty in New York City.^[7]

Och's personal interests include philanthropy, skiing, and history.^[8]

In 2008, Och donated $28,500 to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.^[9]

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Strong character: Face to face with Daniel S. Och," (Pensions & Investments)