What does a fund admin do?

Fund administrators manage the essential back-office operations of investment funds, handling everything from investor onboarding and regulatory compliance to registry management, fund accounting, and investor communications. As regulatory requirements have intensified and investor expectations for transparency have grown, fund administrators have become indispensable partners in ensuring funds operate efficiently and maintain investor confidence.

Core Responsibilities

Fund administration is a third-party service that manages an investment fund's administrative duties and day-to-day operations. Any type of fund may use fund administration services including real estate, private credit, private equity and venture capital funds. At its essence, fund administration encompasses several critical functions:

Fund Accounting

• Maintain Accounting Books and Records: Setup and management of third-party general ledgers, including accruals, prepayments, journals, and reconciliations.
• Unit Pricing: Calculation of fund unit pricing, leveraging precise accounting records, to ensure accurate and timely reflection of fund performance and valuation.
• Payments and Receivables/Payables: Operating the Fund’s bank account, efficient handling of payments to suppliers, and management of the accounts receivable / payable function.
• Tax & Audit Preparation: Streamline tax and audit season by delivering structured records of your ledger from our accountants to your advisors.
• Financial Reporting: Regular preparation of financial reports and an agreed schedule and drafting of annual statutory statements.

Registry Operations

• Capital Calls: Issuance of call notices, statement import, deposit reconciliation, and preparation and provisioning of deposit receipts.
• Distributions:
Calculation of investor allocations and withholding amounts, preparation and provisioning of distribution statements and payment files.
• Reporting & Documentation: Distribution of documentation, including fund performance reports, financial statements, investor holding statements, and similar.
• Transactions: Management of unit issues, transfers, and redemptions, including the issuance of investor confirmations and payment files.
• Tax Statements: Support in the calculation, preparation, and distribution of year-end tax statements for investors.

Investor Management

• Investor Queries & Records: Assistance with investor queries, requests for information, and updating of investor records.
• Investor Onboarding, KYC and CDD: Onboarding of investors and implementation of your AML program, including KYC and CDD.
• Enhanced Due Diligence: Conducting enhanced due diligence (EDD) on investors, including completion of source of funds (SOF) and source of wealth (SOW) verification.​
• Documents and Certificates: Review investor documents and wholesale certificates, track certificate expiry, and address any omissions.
• Bank Accounts: Confirmation of bank account details, management of bank account settings, and reporting on bank account changes.
• AML Audit Support: Assistance with AML audit projects, including the export of data and reports directly to your third-party auditor.

Benefits of Fund Administration

Delegating back-office functions to a trustworthy fund administrator provides several advantages:

• Time savings: Allows fund managers to focus on investment decisions, portfolio management, and investor relationships
• Investor confidence: Demonstrates operational competency and builds trust through professional reporting
• Risk mitigation: Ensures compliance with complex regulations and reduces operational errors
• Scalability: Provides infrastructure to support fund growth without proportional increases in internal resources

Fund Administration Options

Fund managers have several approaches to choose from:

• In-House Team: Provides total control but involves hiring, managing, and paying dedicated staff.
• Outsourced Service Provider: Typically more cost-effective than in-house teams, with expert knowledge across asset classes. Modern providers like Caruso combine experienced professionals with sophisticated technology platforms to provide an integrated fund administration approach.
• Hybrid Approach: Many firms use a combination of in-house capability and outsourced services to optimize both control and efficiency.

Modern Fund Administration

Modern fund administration is no longer just about back-office support, it’s about enabling fund managers to scale with confidence. Platforms like Caruso combine expert fund admin services with integrated software to automate critical workflows across onboarding, compliance, reporting, and registry operations. This connected approach reduces costs, eliminates manual inefficiencies, and importantly, provides fund managers with full transparency and access to their data at any stage.

AI-driven fund admin features such as automated investor communications, transaction reconciliation, and document analysis further streamline operations, helping managers improve margins while delivering a more responsive, institutional-grade experience. As Rohan Barraclough, Director of Ironstate, put it: “We were able to launch without a large back office team and provide institutional-grade service from day one.”

For managers focused on growth, an integrated administration platform is more than an operational tool, it’s a strategic advantage.