Transitioning Fund Administrators: Why it does not have to be as painful as you think
As Private Equity and Alternative Markets continue to scale and attract sophisticated capital, fund managers and their investor bases will need to leverage their service providers to comply with evolving Private Fund regulations and increasing demand to deliver complex reporting in an expeditious manner. Excessive time spent with your Fund Administrator can prove both frustrating and costly, diverting attention from your core focus and the fiduciary obligation of generating returns for your Limited Partners. These are just a few factors that underscore why fund managers are reconsidering their options and evaluating new fund service partnerships now more than ever.
Contributors
The burden and complexity of data migration can often leave fund managers and CFOs feeling captive with their existing provider. This sense of being trapped, coupled with the perceived risks associated with transitioning, often leads fund managers languishing in poor-quality service and compounding errors at the detriment of the General and Limited Partners. However, transitioning between service providers does not have to be as daunting as it may seem or as complicated as you recall from prior experiences. Langham Hall’s Partner-led methodology employs a comprehensive approach towards conversions, enabling fund managers to migrate efficiently while preserving data integrity and minimizing disruptions to your internal team.
At Langham Hall, we believe the role of the Fund Administrator is to alleviate your workload by engaging with the spirit of being a true extension of your team. Our systematic transition plan is built through the lens of our clients, incorporating a thorough risk assessment at the onset of engagement. Langham Halls’ due diligence on your fund documentation, legal, compliance, and electronic data requirements, allows for a realistic transfer timeline that ensures data accuracy and a seamless transition. Our team members work in lockstep with your CFO and back office to drive the transition process, as opposed to being reactive and waiting on requests to trickle through.
Our Partner-led model fosters an analytical culture, providing valuable insights and often uncovering critical errors that may have been overlooked from a previous engagement. Langham Hall has a proven track record of rectifying historical errors in sensitive areas related to fund management and reporting. Our rigorous approach includes rebuilding complex waterfall models, management fees, and equalization calculations during client migrations. At Langham Hall, our foundation is built upon an apprenticeship model where young, talented individuals are trained by professionals with profound expertise in fund reporting and complex structures. Our proven model is further enriched by our Wolfram Computable Data Strategy, an innovative approach that propels us far beyond outdated of legacy systems using advanced data processing. In this way, our customizable reporting templates mitigate risks associated with data transition and ensures seamless continuity in LP reporting.
Langham Hall has undertaken multiple fund transitions. Our migration process is built around four main pillars:
- Data Collection – Our onboarding team gathers all available fund documentation, historical general ledgers, trial balances, financial statements, as well as any capital activity notices from your previous service provider.
- Data Analysis – We conduct a comprehensive review of the data available; rebuilding models exact to fund documentation to ensure accuracy and smoothing out historical data to align with our proprietary Wolfram Transaction Capture.
- Upload and Processing – Once the fund and Limited Partner data is processed through our system, the historical financials and partner capital statements can be generated in a matter of minutes. This streamlines the process significantly. Fund data sets are highly customizable through our Wolfram reporting tool.
- Reconciliation and Assurance – The clients receive reconciliations between the onboarded data comparing to the historic data, giving fund managers the assurance, the migration was completed successfully.
Langham Hall stands as one of the few remaining privately owned Fund Administrators. Over the past few years, we have witnessed a significant influx of new clients come to us due to feeling marginalized by the impacts and fallout that M&A has had on their current arrangements. They are drawn to the fact we structure our business as a partnership with partners directly involved in driving the engagement and overseeing the delivery of client work.
Transitioning service providers does not have to be as daunting or as arduous as commonly perceived. Tolerating subpar service from your current provider not only puts your firm and capital at risk, but also distracts you from your core focus and fiduciary obligation to your Limited Partners. This underscores the critical need for fund managers to reassess their options and carefully consider new fund service partnerships.
Langham Hall is an award-winning global provider of fund administration and AIFMD services to top tier fund managers. Our aim is to establish ourselves as the foremost global provider of administration and AIFMD services to top tier private equity, real estate, debt, and infrastructure clients. We aspire to be respected for our sound judgment and unwavering integrity, and to attract and cultivate the most talented individuals through active apprenticeship.
To hear more about how we can help, please get in touch with a member of our team.
