E76: Fund Administration Explained - How Private Funds Really Work

AIME Episode 76 Transcript

Sarah Florer (00:00.277)
Welcome everyone to Alt Investing Made Easy. Thanks for joining us today. We're delighted to have our new guest, a colleague that is from the financial services industry, Stephanie Henwood-Darts of Phoenix Fund Services. She's here to talk to us about what services her business provides and generally about what fund services are in the industry. Thanks for joining us today, Stephanie.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (00:35.17)
Thanks for having me.

Roland Wiederaenders (00:36.929)
Hey Stephanie, it's great to have you and I was thinking back, Sarah, maybe we did have one other fund administrator before, but for sure nobody in the exotic location where you're located. Stephanie, tell us where you're located.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (00:51.532)
Yeah, well, my home base right now is in Austin, Texas. But as you can tell from how I'm talking, that's not my original home. So I'm from Jersey in the Channel Islands. And as people may or may not know on this, in this viewership, Jersey is an offshore finance location, similar, very similar to Cayman. Hence why my background is in this financial services industry.

Sarah Florer (01:19.733)
And I would say that Jersey is very sophisticated. As an offshore jurisdiction, you're very closely linked to the United Kingdom. it's a lot of international banking passes through Jersey. And so when I met you, I was like, wow, she's going to really know her stuff because that is the industry of Jersey, isn't it?

Roland Wiederaenders (01:19.843)
So Sarah, I'm...

Stephanie Henwood Darts (01:40.28)
Yeah, it definitely is. It's either you're an accountant, a lawyer, or you work supporting the famous Jersey cows, which many people often know when I tell them I'm from Jersey.

Roland Wiederaenders (01:50.009)
Ha

Sarah Florer (01:55.025)
You always have have agriculture in the background. That's the basis of the wealth of many places, actually.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (01:57.825)
Exactly.

Roland Wiederaenders (02:02.767)
Well, know, going back to what we had talked about before we started recording, Stephanie, maybe educate our audience and tell us, you the role of a fund administrator and how it might differ on, you you being in Jersey, how would you maybe be different from a fund administrator in Cayman?

Stephanie Henwood Darts (02:20.686)
Yeah, so while my background is in Jersey and I trained very long time ago, I trained with EY in Jersey and my role, I left to join fund administrators, larger ones and developed throughout my career. I moved to the US about five years ago with one of those fund administrator firms. And I about two years ago then left that firm.

and I set up Phoenix Fund Services with my partner, my business partner. so Phoenix Fund Services itself services US funds, but my background coming from Jersey and the European environment, which as you know is somewhat more regulated than the US environment.

I've been able to bring all of that experience of what good really looks like into the US and into our fund administration firm where we provide our clients with the very best service that they can expect from the industry. So there's the Jersey background and I'm still very well connected with many of the Jersey firms, a lot of which have broadened into the US and created.

global firms, a lot of those actually historically came from Jersey. But our business, Phoenix Fund Services, we are more boutique and we service the US funds, a lot of emerging managers, private equity, real estate, venture capital is really where we focus our time.

Sarah Florer (04:02.333)
And Stephanie, when we first met, we had such a great conversation. And I remember something interesting, and maybe you could go through these again, Roland, I didn't mention it before. What do you mean by an emerging manager? Like, what is an average asset under management size when a party needs to start thinking about fund administration services? We'll also talk more precisely about what that means. But let's just throw some numbers out there about what size funds you're talking about.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (04:32.416)
Yeah, and I would say it's the very, very broad spectrum. And a lot of the time, it's actually not the AUM that drives the decision to use a fund administrator. Most of the time, it just depends on the complexity of the vehicles. You can have a hedge fund that is in the hundreds of millions that is so simplistic in terms of its structure and how it operates.

that needing to outsource that might not be needed. So, but then you could have a small fund, maybe even five to 10 million that has that extra layer of complexity or has a large number of investors that it doesn't make sense for them or they can't handle that internally without that additional person they need to hire. And so, yeah, in terms of who we see,

Sarah Florer (05:19.977)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (05:29.522)
It really ranges from around that 15 million mark up into probably about the 750 million mark. That's where Phoenix really sits. But in terms of the industry as a whole, it really, there is a broad spectrum. But there's also providers that are well matched for each different size and each different complexity and niche that you might be in.

Sarah Florer (05:40.393)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (05:52.697)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (05:56.305)
Roland, think that tracks Stephanie with what I think our experience is when we set up hedge funds for clients because I do think for, you know, around the 15 to 20 million dollar mark, that's also when fund managers themselves start to ask themselves the question, maybe I should outsource some of this just because it's good for compliance, it's good for transparency, it's good for their investor base. And so there's a cost that comes with that, but a very legitimate cost that has a lot of positive benefits. And so

makes sense that that's kind of when that would kick in, unless it is just highly, you know, especially with emerging fund managers who are moving from maybe single asset funds into actually hedge funds or multi asset funds.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (06:39.722)
Yeah, there can be lots of different trigger points, to be honest. It could be, you know, in terms of the, you know, the role that we play, there's really two main, the way I think about it, there's two main parts to it. There's the obvious side, which is the operational support. And that is really the nuts and bolts of what we do to support. It means that we are taking off.

Sarah Florer (06:58.345)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (07:06.146)
the operational and the administration burden from the people in the fund that need to focus on raising that capital and deploying that capital. So anything outside of those really can be given to your fund administrator. So from the subscription process, the administration side, administrative side of that, KYC, AML, onboarding investors, the NAV production is, you know, really the biggest part that we do. And then pulling that funds NAV into

Sarah Florer (07:23.849)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (07:35.161)
the reporting that the investors then will receive on a monthly or quarterly basis, however they need to do that. everything, you know, those things that I've described there, as you can imagine, that is not the best use of your fund manager's time. If you're an investor, you want that fund manager's time to be spent either raising that additional capital to go alongside yours, deploying that capital or finding the value in

Sarah Florer (07:53.386)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (08:04.714)
how they've deployed that capital. Everything other than that is a distraction and that's why they use us. The second part of it and I think you touched on that is that credibility part of it. There is a lot of LPs, especially in the institutional side of things, that will not invest unless there is a fund administrator. That is, you know, becoming more and more

Sarah Florer (08:06.481)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (08:17.951)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (08:32.622)
something that we are hearing is just not even a conversation unless that person has that third party fund administrator in place for that. One, because so they know they're going to get things on time and two, so they know there's that independence and know things like the Madoff scandal you know really helped that part of the it because yeah exactly those are the types of things that can be avoided through that.

Sarah Florer (08:37.449)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (08:45.759)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

Sarah Florer (08:52.887)
Drive that business. Yeah.

Sarah Florer (09:00.735)
Hey, Roland, what do you think? Should we ask Stephanie to define a couple terms? Because we know what AUM and what NAV means. maybe just for those of our audience that are just new to all of this, maybe just define those, Stephanie, as you would.

Roland Wiederaenders (09:13.294)
think that's a great idea.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (09:15.286)
Yeah, sure. So AUM, assets under management, we talk a lot about it in our business personally as the assets under administration, because that's what's important to us. So really, that is the assets, the capital that these managers are handling. So what are they taking on from the investors and what they're deploying? That's the assets that they have to manage.

Sarah Florer (09:39.347)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (09:41.807)
and to maximise the value out of. And you can talk about a manager's total AUM and you can talk about the AUM per fund. Many of these fund managers have, you three, four, five funds. Each of them normally grow in size as they get beyond, you know, fund one might start at 50 million, then 100, then 200 and so on and so on.

Sarah Florer (09:51.945)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (10:06.644)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (10:09.454)
And then the NAV, the net asset value calculation is what we do. That's the fund reporting. So once that capital comes into the fund, you'll have those commitment amounts. And then obviously the expectation for those people that have put that capital in is that that capital is going to grow. And so on a quarterly basis,

Sarah Florer (10:25.779)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (10:34.217)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (10:36.174)
We then take on all of the valuations of the underlying portfolio companies. We manage the expenses and we calculate how that fund has performed, where it stands now, and then issue each partner their statements so they can see how their capital has grown.

Sarah Florer (10:57.077)
Okay.

Roland Wiederaenders (10:58.478)
So you're not performing an audit function, but you do receive information from the fund manager and it has to meet some standards. Like they can't just write something on the back of a napkin and say, here you go. They've got to really make it systematic and provide some basis for it to be reliable to you. And then you're turning around, you evaluate that and you determine what the manager's provided you, you can turn around and represent that.

Gosh, you know, it's a huge responsibility.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (11:31.767)
Yeah, it can be a big responsibility to get things to make it accurate. the you know, our job is the accuracy and we are not independently auditing the numbers that we work very closely with the auditors. We need to make sure that outside of the audit that the investors are getting accurate information timely. And we also need to make sure that that fund if it is audited.

Sarah Florer (11:55.305)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (12:00.436)
audited is audit ready. Because at the end of the year, we are going to be providing that financial statement package with the backup support. throughout, you know, we can't accept anything from the fund manager, which we do not believe will stand up in the audit process. And so, yeah, you're right, while we're not verifying and signing, formally signing off, we are that

Sarah Florer (12:19.41)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (12:29.606)
semi gatekeeper to make sure that that fund is is providing accurate information.

Sarah Florer (12:31.253)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (12:38.421)
And it's that same old thing where you want to hear bad news from your friends and not necessarily from third party strangers or somebody else independent who is going to need to be tough on you just to do their job. So it sounds like that's what you're saying is that you work with people to make sure that I guess part of it's education as often is with clients and some of it is also just holding their toes to the fire in terms of discipline for as an organization.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (12:44.206)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (13:09.324)
Yeah, exactly. know, I like the term you use, like friends. We really see ourselves as a partner and extension of that back office. I don't think all fund administrators really take that approach, even if they might say they do, but we, you know, that's really part of our backbone, especially when we're working with the emerging managers who have less experience in...

Sarah Florer (13:18.292)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (13:35.23)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (13:36.311)
all of these processes that they need to go through, we really are the people that they can lean on. And we can provide that advice to, you know, what we've seen before, how we've seen this, this go, why they, why a document they might have provided not, not, might not necessarily work. Yeah, we are the friendly voice of saying, no, this is great, but this is how we do it better. And

Sarah Florer (13:58.889)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (14:05.026)
Really people see us as that extension of a team, not just a provider that they've signed a contract with. That's going to just provide this very specific scope of services.

Sarah Florer (14:17.685)
Well, you know, let's come back to that Roland because before we started filming, you started to talk about the history of Phoenix Fund Services and how you came about and some changes that were going on in the industry. And a key part of it was this service level, this good service level that you had mentioned. So why don't you tell us a little bit more right now? I know we have other things that we want to talk about too, but I want to make sure we capture that here because I think that's really important as a differentiator for your firm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (14:48.354)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, one of the, a lot of discussion goes on in the industry between fund managers with respect to fund administrators, because there is levels of service that have definitely dipped in the past probably decade now. And really that has come about by a lot of the consolidation that's been happening in the market. Ironically, there's been a lot of PE money that's come into the market invested into

fund administrators and part of that investment is the &A strategy that they then implement. So smaller administrators are being acquired, they're finding ways in which they can add value to these larger businesses that they're building and there's been a lot of different ways in which they've done that. Some of it is offshoring to locations that might not necessarily be on the same time zone.

Sarah Florer (15:36.255)
Hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (15:47.343)
is finding all these different ways in which to create a better margin. But the fund managers have really suffered in parts because they haven't been receiving the time and attention that they really deserve. And when you don't have that time and attention, it can significantly impact the fund's ability to perform. And so...

Sarah Florer (15:56.446)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (16:14.271)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (16:16.29)
That's a big part of the market that's been an issue. Not everyone, you know, it's not wide. Well, I mean, it is widespread, it's not everyone, but there is, it's definitely a discussion point that happens a lot in the industry. And I suppose it's probably the same in the law industry as well. We all have these pockets and we can all get better. And really Phoenix came about because we did see that opportunity.

Sarah Florer (16:30.953)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (16:46.146)
whereby we had the opportunity to have, we had a team that had been part of one of those consolidations. They knew things could be done better. We had the connections. We knew what the best technology was that we wanted to bring to more of the emerging manager side. And we wanted to really showcase how fund administration can be done well and how it could be done over the long term. So that's how

Sarah Florer (16:55.315)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (17:07.029)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (17:11.325)
huh.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (17:15.714)
Phoenix came about and we said before we started recording the name and that's really how the name came about as well. Rising from the ashes of an industry that is an amazing industry but really needs to have a focus on making sure that every fund manager that is entering into an agreement with their fund administrator knows that they're going to get the service that they deserve for.

for the life of that fund.

Sarah Florer (17:46.513)
Yeah, that's great. Roll in.

Roland Wiederaenders (17:48.215)
I'm a big Harry Potter nerd, I love the Phoenix. And as a brand, think you guys picked really well there, so I like that a lot.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (17:51.714)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (17:52.775)
Me too.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (17:59.375)
Thank you.

Sarah Florer (18:01.013)
So let's move on. we were going to mention Roland. I don't know if you have anything else you want to mention here. But so what is the difference between what a fund administrator does versus the role lawyers play in this space versus audit versus tax? We touched on it a little bit, but who kind of owns which part of keeping a fund healthy and compliant and transparent?

Stephanie Henwood Darts (18:26.958)
Yeah, and I think we can really think about this from the journey of a new fund, perhaps, because really, it's the attorneys, your team that comes in probably as that very first point, a fund manager makes that decision, they want to launch a new fund, they're probably soft circling a few investors, but when it really gets down to it, they're going to need those documents to

Sarah Florer (18:54.1)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (18:55.362)
really start to really be able to have those serious conversations. you know, maybe, you know, there's two people much better qualified to talk about what services you provide. if you perhaps can share a little bit more about how your process works on the front end and then how that handover works, we can discuss that together.

Sarah Florer (19:19.295)
Roland, you wanna take that on?

Roland Wiederaenders (19:19.406)
Yeah, I wanted to jump in because this is a place where I remember as a young attorney and I had a solo practice and I actually had a chance to represent some small hedge funds and I'd prepared documents and they said, okay, well we need to send them to the fund administrator. So I sent them along and I was so nervous because I was thinking that this person in Cayman, Big Sitco was gonna review him and say, well, you're missing this and missing that.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (19:36.162)
Mm-hmm.

Roland Wiederaenders (19:46.44)
They send back provisions that need to be incorporated into the fund documents. Primarily, it's defining the role of the administrator as a disclosure point, understanding who you are and what you're not doing as well. That's really important. And then one thing that is a discussion point with the fund administrators, sometimes they go so far as to look at the fund documents and see whether they're covered.

alongside the manager and attorneys as people that might be indemnified from liabilities from third party claims against the fund. And some of them actually insist, you know, that in that litany of all the people that will be identified, you know, the managers, officers, agents, contractors of the fund, you know, we include attorneys, we like that one too, and fund administrators. So that's one place, you know, it's making sure that

the investor intake process, is being and reporting which is being managed by the fund administrator, you know, that's got to fit seamlessly with the the documents that we prepare.

Sarah Florer (20:54.325)
And I think that's like you said, Stephanie, all at the front end. And that's when you work out what exactly are you doing with your fund? What's your investment thesis? Who are your principles? All of these things that we also really like it when the fund administrator is there, meaning not necessarily a party identified, because then we get to actually make suggestions like we would for you.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (21:01.495)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (21:20.393)
but also just contemplated because in that 15 to 20 million dollar space, those fund managers might be learning, like you were saying, and so then there needs to be a consideration, fund administration, what are you going to do? And then of course that gets carried through in the documentation. So I think you are right that the lawyers are kind of the initial step of trying to arrange also, and this would touch on the accounting side too, trying to help advise the fund get structured properly for tax.

considerations that they have. There other issues that come up when you have international investors and maybe you need a more complex fund structure so you can have a US piece and a foreign piece. so I think, you know, it is true that lawyers kind of start at the beginning and then but depending on how well we do our job is how I think well it goes for the ongoing administration because in the end you as a fund administrator and the also auditors and accountants would have

you have the long, long-term relationship, right, the daily relationship with the life of that fund. And that's kind when we hand over, we get called if we need to make amendments on disclosure, new capital raises, different things, changes in principles, other disclosure points, but we don't, we wait for the client to contact us after the fund has started. You, I think, have a more active role in terms of, as we discussed before, helping the client stay on top of things they need to be on top of.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (22:23.787)
and

Stephanie Henwood Darts (22:48.844)
Yeah, that's exactly right. yeah, I think the way I see it is the attorneys really build that fund, build that engine, and then we run that engine. And when we look at the documents that you provide, the LPA, the PPM, the subscription document, they...

Sarah Florer (23:04.654)
that's cool.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (23:14.166)
We are desperate to get our hands on those. So we like to be engaged as early as we can so we can start preparing. Because once those documents are finalized, the LPA, that becomes our Bible. That's everything that we do is run in accordance with that LPA. It's a very important document for us. And it's very important that we study that, we understand it, the team understands it, and everything that we do.

and plug into our technology and everything that goes beyond that is in line with that LPA. So it's important to us that that is drafted in a way that makes sense operationally for that fund so that we can have that ongoing relationship.

Sarah Florer (23:49.043)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (23:57.011)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (24:01.695)
That makes sense. Roll it.

Roland Wiederaenders (24:03.215)
You know, a thought that came to me and this is just the beauty of technology. So you're hanging out in Austin and Jersey's what, six hours ahead of central time. So it's great that, you know, through the use of technology, you could have a staff here in the States to be present with people, you know, and I think that's a preference. But then the other thing that technology, it really did start out back in the 1900s when I first started practicing hall, we...

We're using paper still, but nowadays people can log into portals and enter all their personal information and agree to these documents completely electronically and even probably initiate the funds transfer as well. So I think that's another important role for the administrator. And something I want to learn more about is the possibility for that seamless client intake process and never having to put a

piece of paper in front of them, think is kind of the point.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (25:04.142)
It absolutely is. One of the best things that's come about in recent years is the digitized subscription process. we know, know, and that really not only does it make things easier to fill out and to understand, it also prevents mistakes and subscription documents being submitted with either errors or gaps.

things missing that can't happen. that whole process becoming digitized, we can take on the AML KYC process through that and then that can seemingly that can go through to the fund accounting platform. And that investor has a very nice experience because they can fill out that subscription document. Then we as the fund administrator are then responsible for sending out those capital call notices.

they get a very nice portal that they can log into. So they don't have to worry about, where's all, you know, filing emails in each different folder. They have a log into a portal. Everything that they ever receive from that fund is stored in that portal alongside, know, dashboards and insights that they might want to refer to in terms of in relation to their investment. So another role of a fund administrator is to provide that.

Sarah Florer (26:08.883)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (26:29.08)
technology and without using a fund administrator for that, that becomes extremely expensive for the fund manager to run themselves.

Sarah Florer (26:37.255)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That makes sense. Yeah.

Roland Wiederaenders (26:39.951)
Well, availability of information just gives me greater confidence as an investor and again administered by a third party. it's again just a really important role.

Sarah Florer (26:48.703)
Yeah.

Sarah Florer (26:52.575)
So just to let some see if we can touch us on other points because I'm not sure how long we've been talking. I feel like we could talk for.

Roland Wiederaenders (26:57.955)
Well, it's about 27 minutes, so we should kind of start winding things down maybe.

Sarah Florer (27:02.981)
Yeah, let's see. let's talk about, does it make sense to use a fund or not to use a fund administrator? We've touched on this a little bit, but.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (27:13.002)
Yeah, think from my perspective, know, selfishly I'll say it never makes sense not to use a fund administrator. But really these days, there is limited time. The reasons that maybe people might not is, as we touched on before, if they are a very simple structure and they don't need to hire additional staff, then you wouldn't necessarily want to do that. The second that it becomes

Sarah Florer (27:19.379)
Hahaha!

Sarah Florer (27:37.045)
Mmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (27:42.575)
that you are thinking you might need to hire a controller or a couple of people in the team, there is no cost benefit of doing that. You should really hire that. Even if you're not yet at the point where you have institutional investors and you're not being asked from third parties, really if you want to save money, a fund administrator is going to be your cheapest way of doing that.

Sarah Florer (27:52.828)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (28:10.206)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (28:10.414)
That's one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum that I've seen is when the funds get so large that actually that cost benefit kind of goes away a little bit and it equalize, equals out. And there's a bigger argument at that point that you can actually buy that technology yourself and hire the team around it. And you do get more control of that data and how you.

Sarah Florer (28:32.181)
Mmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (28:38.542)
how you run that team and the information that comes out. They are the two main areas which I see people maybe choosing not to use a fund administrator, but everything in between. These days it's very rare to see people having that function in-house.

Sarah Florer (28:40.116)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (28:58.035)
Yeah, that makes sense because there's also sort of a shifting of liability. You can get different kinds of insurance to cover off different liabilities and things. So I think that all makes sense. So let's just quickly, what would be good to watch out for if, you know, when selecting a fund administrator?

Stephanie Henwood Darts (29:16.972)
Yeah, I think on that side there's a few things that come to mind. think finding a fund administrator that's fit for purpose. think if you are a new VC fund going to a large fund administrator that's maybe affiliated one of the banks that's probably been built mainly to support.

Sarah Florer (29:28.149)
Hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (29:45.241)
hedge funds, which is the typical way in which they've been built, that's probably not going to be a good match. So finding that fit, and that's in terms of the type of fund you're running and the size. I think if you're a smaller fund going to one of the larger fund administrators, you're probably not going to get that treatment that you want and that handholding that you need. So looking at the size match,

Sarah Florer (29:46.345)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (29:51.325)
Right.

Sarah Florer (30:07.209)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (30:14.252)
The niche, if you're in a specific niche, there's normally a niche provider that you can find. I think one of the, one of the other things is making sure that you have connection with the actual team before making a decision, because you can have lots of conversations with the sales team, which can probably talk a good game. But at the end of the day, they are going to be off and onto the next when you've signed back.

Sarah Florer (30:19.945)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (30:30.26)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (30:43.409)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (30:44.11)
contracts and then the people that you're going to be spending a lot of time with and putting your trust in, they're going to be new to you. So you have to have that connection because as much as there's technology heavily involved in this industry, at the end of the day, it is a people business and we are people talking to each other. We have to have that connectivity, those vibes. You have to feel like you trust your fund administrator.

is looking out for you and going over and above to make sure that your investors are getting everything on time and your job's made easier. That's our job. Our job is to make the fund manager's job easier. there are a few things. Pricing is obviously going to be part of the discussion. Typically, the industry is at a point that there is not that much

range you will see if you have a fund and that fund administrator understands the complexities, the pricing should be similar. There is a few providers out there that are very low cost and they typically, from my experience, don't necessarily spend the time to really understand the work that goes in and therefore that's when you see that service falling off. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

Sarah Florer (31:45.727)
Hmm.

Sarah Florer (32:02.963)
Right. That all. Now we say that all the time. mean, it applies to legal services also is that you get what you pay for and you often end up paying more later to fix problems that happen when you try to get be Pennywise and pound foolish. So well, look, I would love to keep going, but we might have to have another conversation some days, Stephanie, because I'm just mindful about what kind of length of episodes the audience likes just quickly. What just let's.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (32:28.322)
Yeah, I'll in.

Sarah Florer (32:31.605)
take a U-turn to something personal and that is, so what do you love about what it is that you do? What keeps you going with this industry? Because you're an entrepreneur and that's a big deal and being in a foreign country as an entrepreneur is another big deal. So you might have a motto or something that keeps you going.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (32:49.87)
The thing that keeps me going in this particular business is the people that I get to work with and the people that because the fund managers that we work with, especially the emerging managers, we work with amazing people that have come out of bigger funds. They're looking at investing into lots of different asset classes to do with space, to do with...

Sarah Florer (32:59.157)
Mmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (33:17.588)
lot, know, you, health care, all of these amazing things that really broadens my outlook into where, where, where there's development going on, where people need support. And, you know, we, we just, personally just love to find those new relationships and also building the team because the team that we have is so amazing at what they do. Sometimes, you it really blows my mind.

Sarah Florer (33:36.99)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (33:43.54)
Mm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (33:46.649)
how they can go into conversations and really work with clients to figure out complex things which go way above my head. And, you know, it's just a privilege to be able to keep building that team and finding people that really are looking for and deserve a place to work that really lets them be themselves and really lets them have the platform to work with great people. So, yeah, I think

Sarah Florer (33:51.923)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Florer (34:12.117)
Hmm.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (34:16.268)
That's definitely it for me from a professional perspective. It always comes down to the people and I'm sure that you experience the same thing. It's never really about the actual day to day, what you're doing, the technology. It's just the people and the conversations that I get to have, including this one. This is a conversation that I really enjoy having and meeting people like you is just such a privilege and I wouldn't get.

Sarah Florer (34:38.129)
Haha

Stephanie Henwood Darts (34:45.164)
to have that if I wasn't in this industry.

Sarah Florer (34:48.253)
It's so funny because, Roland, don't we say that all the time about how cool... We just love getting to interview people like you because it's just a wonderful way to meet people you might not otherwise encounter and also to find the way that we have connections and can help each other and also just to learn more interesting things, broaden your outlook, all the stuff, everything. I agree completely. Roland?

Roland Wiederaenders (35:12.146)
yeah, for sure. And it's been a great vehicle for just having those conversations we wouldn't have otherwise. But I'm going to need to go here in a second. So why don't we wrap things up.

Sarah Florer (35:25.821)
Yeah, I think we'll wrap up. We'll wrap up. Yeah, so thanks so much for being here, Stephanie. And thanks to everyone for joining us today on Alt Investing Made Easy. If you like this episode, please like and subscribe to our channel and we'll see you next time.

Roland Wiederaenders (35:42.106)
And remember everyone, take aim with your alternative investing strategies.

Sarah Florer (35:47.071)
Thanks, see you next time.

Stephanie Henwood Darts (35:48.91)
Thank you.