10 Ways Third-Party Fund Administration Saves You Money
The benefits to investment funds of outsourcing fund operations are numerous, including fund accounting, administration, tax services, sales reporting, investor phone support, web portals, printing, fulfillment, and compliance assistance. But here are 10 ways third-party back-office outsourcing can simply benefit your bottom line:
1. Payroll savings
The cost and complexity of maintaining an in-house fund management staff will only increase as the fund prospers and grows. Sick leave, vacations, benefits, training, and more are big expenses and unnecessary headaches for a thriving and expanding office. Hiring and firing, overstaffing and understaffing, and training and retraining are constant challenges. High-quality third-party fund management handles all back-office tasks without the hassle of staffing.
2. Efficiency
Dedicated systems in the hands of trained and experienced operators speed up and streamline all back-office functions. Minimize time spent on new investment entries, troubleshooting, reporting, maintenance, remittances, distributions, and fee calculations. Controls built into management systems that enforce data consistency, minimize errors, track activity, and provide an audit trail also increase efficiency.
3. Integration of services
For capital calls, distributions, tax form preparation, compliance reporting, and investor transparency, data processed by advanced management and accounting systems are available in real-time via mail, email, or web portal. This optimizes data flow, maximizes data security, and reduces the cost of each function.
4. Audits
Accountants price their services based on each client's organizational history and timely preparation for audits. Administrators who provide accurate, flexible, and available data in a timely and scheduled manner will make the audit process more efficient, reduce cash management disruption, and increase cost-effectiveness.
5. Specialization
A good division of labor means that everyone involved can focus on their core competencies. Fund management providers focus on performing management functions on the operational side and keeping up with industry regulations, trends, requirements, and best practices, allowing fund managers to focus on sales and investments. This helps minimize operational risks and costs associated with responding to unforeseen issues.
6. Reputation
The professional management of third-party funds is impressive. Investors, financial advisors, auditors, institutions, and regulators want to ensure that a) their routine activities are prompt and accurate; b) questions, requests, and requirements are answered quickly and adequately; and c) results are of high quality. When it comes to investment returns and operational responsiveness, fund management has a reputation for stability and excellence. Such a reputation drives reinvestment and the sale of new investments.
7. Opportunity
By transferring fund management to a third party, we can free up our internal staff to focus on activities that contribute to higher returns. In addition, managers who can provide sales reports, financial reports, web portal solutions, fulfillment services, and investor/advisor phone support can help support and enhance these activities and provide the benefits of redeploying internal staff.
8. Compliance
Avoiding public fines requires smooth and efficient fund operations. An experienced fund management firm can alert fund management to potential red flags, thereby avoiding costly mistakes and violations. Advanced fund managers establish procedures and policies that protect funds from avoidable errors and avoid the time, expense, and disruption of regulatory scrutiny.
9. Gained industry knowledge
Our fund management team's experience allows client funds to skip steps and streamline functionality. Experienced fund managers have learned from the experiences of many of their clients, so the fund can benefit from the experience of others instead of making avoidable mistakes.
10. Economies of scale
Through fund management, funds benefit from the central processing of one provider for many customers. Employees can not only focus their experience and knowledge in the best places because of economies of scale, but they can also reduce the hourly cost of back-office tasks and hire internal operations staff who are paid more per hour for the tasks they perform. Eliminate staff waste.
At fund launch or at any time thereafter, choosing an experienced and trustworthy fund management company is a wise investment. This is an investment in efficiency, managerial focus, and smoother relationships with all parties that yields a real win on the bottom line.
Asset Custody
For private equity managers to distribute funds, they must be able to store them. Who can hold the funds? You're right. Approved custodian. Simply put, a custodian is a financial institution that can hold assets safely and legally on behalf of its beneficiaries, thereby mitigating the risk of loss or theft. Both trusts and banks are examples of custodians. However, banks can often be extra strict about the types of assets they want to store. Trusts, on the other hand, are subject to different SEC regulations and can manage a variety of assets, including private placements and real estate.
A fund management company must work with a licensed custodian to operate legally. The advantage of working with an experienced company is that they are licensed custodians. This allows you to store your assets and operate as an independent entity without outsourcing your custody and compliance processes. Less outsourcing means lower costs for them, which means lower costs for you.
Anti-Money Laundering & Compliance
Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer (aka AML/KYC) are protocols put in place to give businesses a transparent view of their customers. These measures help prevent malicious or illegal activity from taking place. Investment funds are no exception when it comes to meeting compliance standards. Since compliance is a process of checks and balances and of itself, fund managers typically step in to play this role and ensure that the fund's investors are appropriately certified and vetted.
When looking for a fund manager, it's important to make sure they have a history of compliance savvy (i.e., know how to follow the rules). A proper system must be in place to ensure that these actions are essential to the health and longevity of investment funds.