US EAST COAST 2012 - HFMWeek

US EAS T COAS T 2012
ADMINISTRATION
CHANGE IS GREAT, BUT
CONSISTENCY IS BETTER …
AS THE FUND ADMINISTRATION SPACE HAS BECOME MORE CROWDED AND COMPETITIVE IN RECENT YEARS, TED JASINSKI OF ADMIRAL
ADMINISTRATION LLC EXPLAINS HOW A DEDICATED, HIGH-QUALITY AND CONSISTENT SERVICE HAS CREATED SUCCESS FOR BOTH
THE FIRM AND THE CLIENTS
Ted Jasinski, general
manager of Admiral
Administration (US) LLC,
established its US office
in 2007, which has since
grown from five clients to
more than 50, covering
a range of investment
structures and asset classes.
He has 23 years’ experience
in the hedge fund and
alternative investment
industry.
Alot has changed and evolved in the hedge
fund industry since Autumn of 2008. In
this post-Madoff era, the need for transparency,
state of the art technology, stronger
controls, and straight through processing
has never been more evident with
hedge fund managers and their service providers. The role
of the third-party hedge fund administrator has expanded
immensely and is constantly transforming. While we witness
the continual low cost pressures
for large and small administrators,
as well as the consolidation
that is taking place between the
industry giants (State Street and
Goldman Sachs, as well as SS&C
and GlobeOp), we wonder what is
in store for the future of this business.
This much is true: change has
been in play for close to four years,
and there is no end in sight as the
demands to become more efficient
and cost effective for the investment
manager (IM) continue to
be the name of the game.
Admiral Administration is certainly
no stranger to the game. As
one of the older administration
THE ROLE OF THE THIRD-
PARTY HEDGE FUND
ADMINISTRATOR HAS
EXPANDED IMMENSELY
AND IS CONSTANTLY
TRANSFORMING
”
firms in the business, we have leveraged off our 16-year
existence and experience and have made radical improvements
to our technology offering. With what we believe to
be best of breed technology, we continue to develop and
make enhancements to our technology platform of Avatar
(proprietary contact management system), Advent Geneva
and Partner, and Paladyne (middle-office analytics
and data management). We rolled out Avatar FM earlier
in 2012, which gives IMs full transparency of their investors’
contact and transaction data.
It also connects and integrates with
our web reporting and Paladyne
Report Manager portal in a seamless
fashion. While we feel that we
can compete with the larger firms
in the space, we are confident we
have a complete understanding of
our identity and what separates us
from the pack.
IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT SERVICE
Admiral has always maintained a
core belief and emphasis on strong
client and investor services. In
fact, the business had never had
a dedicated salesman until early
2011. That’s 15 years of building a
business and reputation as a recognised brand by simply
getting the job done well and expanding the client base
through referrals. As a relationship model, we pride ourselves
on responsiveness, accessibility and reliability at all
levels. From top to bottom within the organisation, there
is an emphasis on exceptional ‘soft skills’. With our single
point of contact model, we assign qualified account managers
to know their client and their products with a ‘cradle
to grave’ approach. Additionally, we surround these relationship
managers with teammates that exemplify professionalism,
high integrity and strong character. As part of
the team, fund administrators and fund accountants do a
lot of the behind the scenes back-office responsibilities; as
they gain experience with each daily and monthly NAV,
they provide valuable depth and coverage in the overall
process.
DON’T JUST SAY IT, DISPLAY IT
I’ve always been a big believer in results. Benjamin Franklin
once said: “Well done is better than well said.” We believe
in this philosophy at Admiral and strive to meet our
clients’ needs on a day-to-day basis. Listening is critical,
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