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Apex Fund Services
Apex has attracted more responses than any other provider in the survey . That alone is tribute to a consistent strategy , faithfully executed , and a string of acquisitions , successfully integrated . Local operations are name-checked regularly in the comments , and former clients of acquired businesses speak only of their expectations , not their anxiety . “ Hopefully now DB has moved onto a more agile platform as part of Apex , they can make improvements to the current service ,” writes one of them . But the excellence of the scores , whose averages clear the survey benchmarks with ease in all but two service areas , is the true reward . That for client service comes garlanded with praise . “ We have been extremely pleased with this administrator since launching our fund 10 years ago ,” writes one respondent . “ We still have the same relationship manager and would not consider any change . The team is very attentive and responsive , courteous , diligent and prompt in responding to the needs of our portfolio managers and our small business as a whole .” A second delivers the ultimate accolade : “ Apex Fund Services does extremely well in partnering with me , and we consider them an extension of our firm .” Even the less-than-ecstatic clients are readier to blame themselves (“ Any delays in reporting [ to LPs ] are attributable to the GP ”) or to find extraneous explanations (“ There was some rotation of personnel working for the company , which is not an Apex-specific problem but a general problem in the highly competitive field of fund administration ”). In the core services of fund accounting (“ Apex provides monthly data and client statements to us in formats that we designed ”), investor services (“ They follow our instructions exactly about how investors are to be treated and are willing to go to exceptional lengths to assure investor satisfaction for both small and large investors ”) and reporting to investors (“ Apex is very flexible and accommodating to investor requests ”), managers (“ They provide everything I need ”), tax authorities (“ There has been timely reporting to tax authorities before every due date ”), auditors (“ My auditors are very complimentary of Apex – they do an excellent job on our audit ”) and regulators (“ so far , so good ”), the flattering comments are equal to the scores . In the more testing field of KYC , AML and sanctions screening checks , the inevitable offences are judged venial (“ Some procedures are quite lengthy and troublesome ”) or commendable (“ Very tough on trusts or holding company structures ”). Unusually , there is more praise than grumbling for the on-boarding process . “ Apex representatives were available 24 / 7 , answering questions and helping get our fund set up ,” writes one with recent experience of the process . Clients believe Apex prices its services keenly (“ competitive with market rates ”) and fairly (“ I believe Apex earns the fees it charges , and that they are customary and reasonable ”), that it takes a long-term view of minnows and start-ups (“ friendly to relatively small set-ups ”) and that it adapts its rate card to changing circumstances (“ Apex reduced its fee when we were struggling to raise assets and has only increased its fees once in ten years ”). One client even says that the service is “ so exceptional , that we volunteered to pay higher fees .” Where both scores and comments point to palpable room for melioration is in corporate secretarial services . “ The administration service is very good , but they can improve on the corporate secretarial services ,” writes one client . A second agrees that “ this service has room for improvement .”
By size
90 %
PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
Large Medium Small
Weighted average scores by service area Service area
2 % 8 %
Weighted average scores
* Legacy Deutsche Bank services
By location
2016 2017 2018 5.95 6.14 6.19
Weighted average score
Client service 6.33 5.1 % On-boarding 6.02 5.3 % Fund accounting 6.35 2.4 % Investor services 6.23 2.8 % Reporting to investors 6.16 2.4 % Reporting to managers 6.11 4.3 % Reporting to regulators 6.34 5.3 % Reporting to the tax authorities 6.24 4.3 % Reporting to auditors 6.25 2.7 % KYC , AML and sanctions screening 6.23 3.3 % Depositary services * 6.12 2.0 % Corporate secretarial services 5.97 1.9 % Middle office services 5.84 -0.4 % Banking services * 6.37 4.8 % Operations 6.25 2.2 % Cyber-security 6.31 5.5 % Price 6.06 4.2 % Total 6.19 3.4 %
50 %
24 %
26 %
Americas Europe and Middle East Asia
+/ - the global average
The Hedge Fund Annual 2018 globalcustodian . com 57