I'm wondering what a Mutual Funds Administrator does and what the dynamic with who they work with entails.
Thank you in advance!
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I'm sorry, but I work for a major AM firm, and I have no idea what you're asking about. Are you asking about what it's like to work for a custodian? What it's like to be a transfer agent, asset management in general, or something else?
Thanks for posting. I'm guessing it's a matter of different titles or roles among different companies, but I found a description on Wikipedia that seemed closest to what I was told by someone at the company:
"Fund administration is the name given to the set of activities that are carried out in support of the process of running a collective investment scheme, whether the scheme is a traditional mutual fund, a hedge fund, pension fund, unit trust, or something in between.
Managers of funds often choose to outsource some or all of these activities to external specialist companies, such as a fund's custodian bank. These companies are often known as fund administrators.
These administrative activities may include the following administrative functions, which may include "fund accounting" functions. Some of these items may be specific to fund operations in the US, and some pertain only whether the fund is an SEC-registered fund:
Calculation of the net asset value ("NAV"), including the calculation of the fund's income and expense accruals and the pricing of securities at current market value, is a core administrator task, because it is the price at which investors buy and sell shares in the fund.1 This involves trade capture; security valuation (for highly illiquid securities, considerations include whether counterparty valuations are available and/or appropriate and whether the securities can be valued by independent vendors); reconciliations; expense calculation; and NAV calculation and reporting.1 The accurate and timely calculation of NAV by the administrator is vital.12
Preparation of semi-annual and annual reports to shareholders
Maintenance and filing of the fund's financial books and records as the fund accountant, including reconcilement of holdings with custody and broker records
Payment of fund expenses
Settlement of daily purchases and sales of securities, ensuring collection of dividends and interests"
...and so on.
What title would you give someone in this role at your company?
So these are a variety of roles, some internal, some external.
Custody of assets, dividend collection and calculation of NAV for simpler asset classes is going to be the "Custodian." Bank of NY, BBH and State Street are the big three in this space.
More complex assets like FI and alts may employ a third party "Calculation Agent" for NAV.
Dealing with the purchase and sale of shares in a mutual fund will be a "Transfer Agent." This is a thankless middle office job where you only get noticed if you mess up.
General bookkeeping and whatnot is normally the finance department.
Writing annual shareholder reports is called being the office b***h. I've done it, it sucks. Nobody reads them. It is why marketing materials are put out instead.
Great insight. Thanks
Something like a Fund Accountant. If so, run far away, truly an awful job that will be automated by next month.
Ouch haha
I think you're optimistic, and have no idea how 1970s a lot of things still are. Data is power and nobody wants to share. I'm viewed as a god because I can load a csv file that MSCI or FTSE sends into Factset and M* in 15 minutes instead of 15 hours. My analysis isn't normally groundbreaking, but it is competent parsing of the data afterwards.
Are you using SQL to breakdown the data? Wondering if it's worth getting a Microsoft SQL certification as a resume booster
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