Platform aims for 'Xero of investment admin'

A new investment administration platform is offering fund managers the ability to break performance fees down to individual investors.

Friday, June 17th 2016, 6:00AM

by Susan Edmunds

Adminis evolved from wealth management firm Crema Capital.

It is a cloud-based system that has the capacity to provide investment accounting, administration and registry services to PIE Funds, DIMS providers, wealth managers, advisers and limited partnerships.

Chief executive Martin Kay says the platform is on track to get $1 billion in assets under administration this year.

He said Crema developed the platform when it couldn’t find an appropriate service for its own needs. Everything in the market was either suitable for those with low-end requirements or the very high-end.

“We started talking to other nascent fund managers and they were having the same issues. We showed them what we had done and they were excited and impressed.”

There are now a team of 14 working on Adminis and it is to branch out into custody services, with BNP Paribas offering sub-custody.

“Other investment managers can’t go to BNP and ask for custody because it typically only deals with very large accounts. We are an aggregator, if you like,” Kay said.

The offer is tailored towards small- to medium-sized wealth managers. Former Kiwibank chief executive Sam Knowles and former BNP Paribas head of securities services Hugh Stevens are on Adminis’ board.

Kay said the company’s goal was to be seen as the Xero of the investment administration world.

Xero’s big strength was that it brought together business owners, accountants and bookkeepers on a single platform, he said. “Our aim is similar - to bring in investors, investment managers and custodians, the main stakeholders around a single source.”

Clients had been impressed by Adminis’ ability to offer innovative options, such as performance fees on an individual client level rather than across funds, he said.

“It means a lot of the unfairness you get from having a high-water mark and having a new investor coming along getting a free ride on performance fees isn’t there. It’s more fair for investors and investor managers.”

It was possible that Adminis could look to expand internationally in future.

Kay said robodavice was not on the cards for the platform – yet.

“If an investment manager had some kind of aspiration to roboadvice we could sit down with them and work it through. We have the capacity to do that. But it’s more a case of we don’t want to go and build it for the sake of it.”

Tags: funds management