Blogs

By Anne Anquillare, CFA, Head of CSC U.S. Fund Services Like many other practices that grow up over time in an industry, the use of parallel funds, co-investments, side cars, blockers, SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicle), etc. have created their own set of complexities and unintended consequences. While they all have their roles in the investment structure, the expenses associated with…

By Anne Anquillare, CFA, Head of CSC U.S. Fund Services As we all spend more time reading through the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules for private fund advisers, it becomes obvious in the questions listed for comment that the SEC knows it is dealing with a dynamic industry. It recognizes that all parties involved need to…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed new rules and amendments for private fund advisers on Feb. 9, with industry reaction ranging from “it’s about time” to “OMG, what are they trying to do, kill us?” and lots of reactions in between. And, as if reading some industry minds, the SEC quickly followed this news by posting video on…

Anne Anquillare, head of US fund services at PEF Services, a CSC company, discusses what GPs are doing to meet evolving investor expectations, the importance of changing minds and outlines a roadmap to back-office readiness. View the Article and Video

The complexity of distribution waterfalls can often deter Limited Partners (LPs) from engaging in the calculation process, but as Delphine Jones, solutions consultant executive at PEF Services explains, understanding the methods and arming yourself with a bit of knowledge can be a valuable thing. View the Article and Video

By Beth Manzi, CPA, Chief Operating Officer, PEF Services, LLC There are two basic methods into which private equity distribution waterfall schedules are classified: European or American. Typically, the European waterfall is preferred by Limited Partners (LPs), while the American waterfall is preferred by General Partners (GPs.). The two methods are typically differentiated by the ways in which they deal…

A distribution waterfall defines the way the profit of a fund is distributed between the Limited Partners (LPs) and the General Partner (GP.) It also defines the distribution of carried interest to the GP once the threshold return is exceeded. Essentially, the total profit is distributed according to a cascading, tiered structure that gives the waterfall its name. When one…

By Anne Anquillare, CFA,Chief Executive Officer & President, PEF Services LLC Newly developed universal reporting standards are promising to take private capital’s most urgent challenge—the lack of transparency—and solve it once and for all. Sound familiar? Will this time be different? And if it is, is my firm ready? And if it isn’t, shouldn’t my firm be ready anyway since eventually…

By Anne Anquillare, CFA,Chief Executive Officer & President, PEF Services LLC We have all heard it—the greatest challenge for the private capital markets—and the greatest opportunity—centers on providing investors access to real-time information to enable true transparency. Investors and regulators alike are demanding new levels of information access that are convenient  with a high degree of visibility, reliability and security. And…

By Anne Anquillare, Chief Executive Officer & President, PEF Services LLC Two world trends are converging on our industry – business intelligence (BI)/data driven decision making and the dramatic expansion of investment assets under management. In their Asset & Wealth Management Revolution report, PwC predicts that global assets under management will rise to $145.4 trillion by 2025, doubling the amount from…

By Beth Manzi, CPA,Chief Operating Officer, PEF Services, LLC The back office needs to strengthen their systems and processes. Often, when we’re onboarding a client, they’ll hand us a financial statement that’s an Excel file with hard-coded numbers. That’s a recipe for disaster on so many levels. When the numbers are entered manually, the risk of human error is high.…