MutualFundWire.com: A Big Four Firm Wants 12 Asset Management Experts

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Thursday, March 7, 2013

A Big Four Firm Wants 12 Asset Management Experts

Running an asset management firm is becoming harder all the time. Now you can turn to an accounting firm for help.

Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young is aggressively expanding a division aimed at advising asset management executives on ways to improve their business.

In particular, the accounting firm is looking for 12 experts — nine senior managers and three managers — to work in the Performance Improvement practice of its Financial Services Office.

The openings are posted on both the E&Y Career Site and Linkedin.

According to one of the job postings (they all have essentially the same language), the Financial Services Office is "a uniquely industry-focused business unit that provides a broad range of integrated services to financial institutions and other capital markets participants, including retail and mortgage banking, commercial banks, investment banks, broker-dealers, asset managers (traditional and alternative), insurance and energy trading companies, and other organizations."

Meanwhile, the E&Y Performance Improvement practice "helps clients better align their organizations' operating infrastructures with their strategies. We have a broad range of capabilities to assist clients with operational improvement, profitability management, finance function activities, and business integration. Our professionals focus on the assessment and redesign of business, risk, and control processes and the refinement of operating models."

The company goes on by declaring that "the goal is to support our clients' efforts to make their business units more effective and efficient and, where required, provide services in connection with the remediation and mitigation of process risk. Our experience is also important to the analysis of specific business requirements for alignment with technology architecture, technology infrastructure design, and vendor selection decisions."

Moreover, E&Y describes the target customers for this practice as follows:

Within Performance Improvement, the Operations Improvement Asset Management Practice provides integrated advisory services to firms dedicated to the Asset Management business--both Traditional and Alternative.

Traditional Asset Management is defined as including those firms who are
1) independent investment advisors managing institutional assets (primarily sub-advisors to insurance separate accounts or general account assets; advisors of ERISA, Taft-Hartley, or other qualified plans; ultra high net worth separately managed accounts; mutual fund assets or other co-mingled accounts);
2) the office of investments within insurance companies;
3) bank-owned asset management firms;
4) the advisor's investment operations (middle and back-office operations, including transfer agency, fund accounting, fund administration, retirement recordkeeping, and corporate shared services);
5) third-party fund accounting and fund administration service providers; and
6) family offices of the ultra high-net worth) in the capital markets, asset management and insurance industry segments.

Alternative Asset Management is defined as including those firms that service institutional investors or accredited high net worth individuals. Alternative investment firms include:
1) hedge funds supporting a wide variety of investment strategies (global macro, market neutral, liquid, credit, etc.);
2) private equity;
3) real estate; and
4) fund of funds;
5) family offices of the ultra high-net worth;
6) bank owned alternative asset management groups; and
7) third-party fund administration, prime broker, transfer agency and custody service providers.
Core to these firms are the investment operations, middle and back-office operations including: valuations, risk analytics, counterparty reconciliations, fund accounting, financial reporting and tax.

Meanwhile, E&Y offers the following kinds of Asset Management services:

Operating model design and execution

Integration services for merger and acquisitions

Service provider selections and client onboarding (fund administration, custody, and transfer agency)

Investment products design, development and launch

Business process redesign and process improvement of the portfolio management, trading, trade settlement, investment accounting, and shareholder recordkeeping processes

Operational risk advisory

Technology strategy

Information management services and security (process and controls)

Front and back office platform assessment, selection and implementation

Program management and project lifecycle advisory services

Program management, change management, and third-party governance models and oversight programs