Established Funds Managers

FUND MANAGERS

Unlike other financial services consultants, we are experienced funds managers, with over 35 years hands-on experience at both boutique investment managers and some of Australia’s largest financial services companies.

We have won several industry awards including superannuation fund manager of the year.

This makes us very difference from other consultants. They are like marriage councillors that have never been married. They can never fully understand what it is like to be married because they haven’t been married.

We know what it like to be a funds manager.

Epicentre for your needs

This is of great benefit to you because it means that we can help in with any function. From front, middle and back officers there is nothing we can’t do, with the exception of managing your IT team and writing computer code.

Consider us a resource that you can access at any time. The website outlines many of the services we can offer you to help you comply with the Law, client contracts and grow your business. For example:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cyber Security

AI and cyber security are going to change our industry in very profound ways. We can help you navigate through the changes to come and help put you in a position of being a beneficiary of AI and not a victim.

Cyber security is a huge threat to your business operations. We can help you mitigate the threat.

Other parts of this website deal with both the opportunity and threat that AI offers and the menace of cyber security.

OPERATIONS AND COMPLIANCE SUPPORT

We offer a middle and back office service to AFSL holders using our operational and compliance experience to develop a commercially realistic administration (i.e. low cost).

Operations

We know that policies and procedures evolve overtime and because they are written by different people they can eventual contradict each other. Often there is unnecessary duplication and unnecessary documents, policies and procedures. Instruction manuals become out of date with changing software and operating requirements of clients. Because of this, your business becomes overly reliant on staff members.

When they leave or go on holiday, this can lead to expensive mistakes being made, client reports being wrong or late or both.

Eventually your clients (especially institutional clients and their advisors) will lose faith in your company. Many will eventually terminate the investment management agreement.

Asset consultants may lower their rating of your company simply on the basis of a ‘sloppy backroom’.

Compliance, corporate governance and human resources

Compliance with the requirements of your AFSL and the investment management agreements you have with clients is critical to the success and viability of your business.

When regulators find a significant breach of your licence or the Law, they are likely to announce the same to the media. (Even late lodgement of accounts have resulted in the suspension of an AFSL).

The reputational damage of ASIC action could set your business back years, especially with institutional investors and their advisers.

Fear of breaching AFSL conditions and the Law has been identified by the Federal Government’s “Quality of Advice Review” as a significant impediment to the provision of affordable financial advice. They see this fear as unnecessary.

This has led to much expenditure on compliance functions and human resources and slowed down normal operations, such as the provision of advice and decision making.

Compliance reports can often deal with the trivial, often depriving Boards of Directors / compliance committees of time that could be allocated to the health of the business, strategy, cost control and revenue growth.

As an ASFL holder, you only have to comply with what is written in the Law. You don’t have to satisfy regulatory guidelines, a point that the Quality of Advice Review makes. The review also notes that licences think that regulatory guidelines are the Law and spend time on systems that include guidelines in compliance programs and corporate governance. Guidelines and much other published information on websites are not the Law. ASIC can do nothing about your business not adhering to the guidelines or information provided on websites, seminars and so on. Your company has to satisfy itself that its operation / administration it is complying with what is written in the Law. That is it.

Third party due diligence

Before you win institutional investment mandates, you will be subject to due diligence by potential clients. Some investment platforms, family offices and very high net worth investors may carry out their own due diligence on your business before they sign the investment management agreement.

This usually involves answering a large number of written questions and then onsite audit (1 to 2 days). Fail the questionnaire and there will be no on site audit.

Expect your response to the questionnaire to be at least 8,000 to 10,000 words long with 50+ supporting documents. Multi asset due diligence will obviously require a longer written response.

It you get pass the questionnaire, there will be an onsite examination. The main purpose of the visit to your office is to make sure that your staff operate the way you said they did in your answers to the questionnaire and possibly your licence application.

What we do:

1. Cut away unnecessary polices and procedures that are redundant, thereby cutting unneeded expenses.
2. Where necessary, using our extensive library of over 300 policies and procedures, we rewrite your documents to a standard to that will be approved by due diligence teams.
3. Review all manuals to ensure that they are up to date clear and unambiguous. Manuals should be detailed enough that a person unfamiliar with a task can complete it without assistance. This results in reduced reliance on key staff.
4. We can assist you in responding to questionnaires, completing regulator reports and so on.

Help you understand your AFSL obligations

We can assist in resolving concerns about concerns and issues that occur operating in a complex regulator environment and assist with requirements such as:

• Compliance policies,
• Lodgement of Statutory Returns,
• Compliance meeting process and documents to table,
• Monitoring statutory developments.

If you have a problem

Breach reporting to Regulators

You are required to report all potential breaches of the Law. There are many circumstances where it is not clear if a breach has occurred. You are better-off to report a potential breach than wait until you are sure.

There are strict time frames to report a breach and not meeting is a breach itself. Our deep understanding of financial services businesses gives an advantage over other consultants. We have made breach reports to regulators and dealt with regulators. We can assist you in this area.

Breach reporting to Clients

Most Institutional clients will require you report any breach reports you have made to Regulators. This attestation is required monthly at a minimum.

Investment management agreements (IMA) will require you to report any breaches of the Law and the IMA to them (and sometimes their advisors).

Significant breaches if the become systemic, will trigger an investigation by the client or their advisers. This may result in a warning or loss of a mandate. If the breach results in a financial loss to the client, you will have to compensate them. For big clients, that compensation may run into the millions.

Administrative support

We can support your operations team in a number of ways, in particular in areas that they don’t normally deal with. For example,

• Registering new investment schemes,
• De-registering schemes,
• Regulatory requests for information/explanation,
• Breach reporting and processes,
• Dealing with outstanding lodgements and returns,
• Providing replacement Responsible Manager,
• Performance reporting,
• Explaining investment performance issues,
• Liaison with custodians and service providers.

If you have a special project

In a growing, efficient business, there are always one-off projects. We can assist you in a range of areas to profitably grow your business and keep costs under control.

For example,

Cost control

• Automation such as using Artificial Intelligence,
• Service provider searches,
• Culling of unnecessary administration and compliance policies and procedures,
• Finding office space and lease negotiations,
• Selection of trading systems and valuation software.

Grow the business

For example,

• New product development,
• Marketing strategies,
• Strategic planning,
• Improving the ratio of income generators to supporting staff.

Do you need a sounding board?

Intrinsic will offer an unbiased opinion of any question you ask about your business.