Bridging the ABOR/IBOR Gap:
What Endowments and Foundations Operations Leaders Really Need
Discover how aligning the Accounting Book of Record (ABOR) and the Investment Book of Record (IBOR) can give endowments and foundations real-time clarity across public and private markets. Learn why this shift is key to reducing risk and improving decision-making.
The Reality for Endowment Operations Team
Managing investment operations in an endowment or foundation is a delicate balancing act. Teams are often small, yet they oversee increasingly complex portfolios that now include alternatives alongside public markets, leading to a surge in data, valuation methods, and reporting requirements.
The pressure is relentless. Investment offices and committees demand daily insights into exposures, liquidity, and a multitude of associated information, while boards and donors expect transparency. Auditors require precise reconciliations, all of which must be delivered timely despite the various formats of data received from multiple custodians and investment managers.
For investment operations teams, the challenge lies in managing enterprise-scale complexity often without the required bandwidth. It’s essential to focus on what operations teams need to succeed.
What Ops Leaders Need
Alignment between Accounting Book of Record (ABOR) and Investment Book of Record (IBOR)
No more misalignment between the “official” accounting book and the “working” investment book. The two must reconcile seamlessly, so finance and investment teams are speaking the same language.
Daily, Decision-Ready Data
Ops teams need more than quarterly closes or batch-driven reports. They need accurate daily visibility into exposures, liquidity, cash flows, and commitments — so the investment office can act with confidence in real time.
Forward-looking Transparency
Accounting records are essential, but investment operations must also anticipate what’s ahead: capital calls, distributions, unfunded commitments, and liquidity pinch points. This forward view is what enables true risk management.
Customizable Reporting
Boards, donors, auditors, and regulators all want information in different formats, often on short notice. Ops leaders need reporting that adapts to the audience, not rigid templates that force endless manual work.
A Partner that Understands Alternatives
Endowments and foundations manage complex, multi-asset portfolios where alternatives are only one piece of the equation. True partnership means understanding how private market investments fit within the broader ecosystem of public equities, fixed income, and real assets—and ensuring they’re all captured in a single, coherent reporting framework.
At Alter Domus, our strength lies not just in our alternative expertise but in how we integrate that knowledge across the full spectrum of holdings. We help investment teams achieve true total-portfolio visibility—connecting data from private funds, co-investments, and partnerships to the liquid exposures managed elsewhere.
The result is unified, institutional-grade reporting and governance that reflects the full reality of your portfolio. That integrated approach extends to how we collaborate with your existing partners.
Seamless Collaboration with Custodian Banks
We work closely with custodian banks to ensure that data and reporting flow smoothly across both public and private assets. Our systems and workflows are designed to complement custody platforms—enhancing, not duplicating, their capabilities.
For investment teams, this means maintaining established banking relationships while gaining a more complete and connected picture of portfolio performance. The result is a cooperative model that brings together the strengths of both worlds: the custodians’ scale and security with Alter Domus’ deep understanding of private markets.
The Challenge with Non-specialist Solutions
Many of the partners that serve endowments and foundations operate a model that was designed for traditional markets, excelling in equities and bonds but struggling with alternatives. Data silos hinder operations teams from achieving a unified portfolio view, and standardized reporting falls short of delivering the daily insights investment offices need.
Non-specialist solutions often overlook the complexities of private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and real assets. Capital calls, unfunded commitments, and bespoke valuations don’t fit into public market workflows, forcing teams to manually reconcile gaps and adapt templates for boards and auditors. For small endowment teams, these challenges lead to increased workload, risk, and confusion—contrary to the goals of ABOR and IBOR.
Aligning for Clarity and Control
For directors of investment operations, the challenge isn’t just more data — it’s delivering accuracy, timeliness, and transparency with small teams under mounting pressure.
That requires a model where ABOR and IBOR are aligned, reconciled, alternative-aware, and tailored to your governance needs.
Mitigating Trade Settlement Risk: Building Strength in Private Markets Operations
Private markets have entered an era of scale. Funds are bigger, deals are more complex, and investors now expect flawless execution at every step. But in the rush to close transactions and raise capital, one critical piece often gets overlooked: loan trade settlement.
In public markets, settlement is standardized — trades close in T+1 or T+2, with systems designed to make the process routine. Private markets are a different story. Settlement is slower, less uniform, and packed with variables across jurisdictions, fund structures, and counterparties. When it’s handled well, no one notices. When it goes wrong, it can quietly drain liquidity, damage trust, and even affect performance.
Settlement isn’t just a back-office detail. It’s a risk management issue — and one that says a lot about whether a manager is truly built to scale.
Why settlement in private markets is so tricky
Unlike public equities or bonds, private market trades don’t follow a single set of rules. Instead, managers have to navigate:
Non-standard timelines — the “when” of settlement varies with each deal, counterparty, and geography
Lots of players involved — fund entities, custodians, administrative agents, borrowers, lawyers, and counterparties all touch the process.
Manual workarounds — too many steps still rely on spreadsheets, which means mistakes are easy to make.
Put simply: settlement can be the weakest link in otherwise sophisticated operations.
The risks of getting settlement wrong
1. Operational Breakdowns
When processes are manual or systems don’t talk to each other, errors creep in — mismatched instructions, trades that never get confirmed, or bookings that don’t match reality. In private markets, these errors don’t always show up right away, which makes them even more painful when they do.
2. Liquidity Strain
If a settlement drags, cash or securities can get tied up for longer than expected. Suddenly, capital calls have to be rushed, distributions delayed, and cash forecasts scrambled. LPs don’t like surprises like that.
3. Counterparty & Credit Risk
The longer a trade sits unsettled, the more exposed a manager is to the counterparty. In some cases, managers may have to over-collateralize or even put their own balance sheet at risk just to keep things moving.
4. Valuation Distortions
Unsettled trades that aren’t booked correctly can skew NAVs and portfolio values. That doesn’t just mess with performance reporting — it can spill into compliance problems if filings end up being wrong.
5. Reputational Damage
LPs now look closely at operations in their due diligence. If they see repeated settlement issues, it sends a signal: this manager isn’t operationally sound. That kind of impression spreads quickly in the investor community.
6. Regulatory & Compliance Exposure
Settlement problems often don’t stay contained. They ripple downstream into reporting, disclosures, and fund mandate compliance. With regulators watching private markets more closely than ever, the margin for error is shrinking.
7. Hidden Costs
Every mishandled or delayed trade comes with costs — from lost delayed compensation to dispute resolution to endless rework. Just as damaging, it eats up team bandwidth that should be focused on value-driving work.
Why this matters more than ever
Private markets are bigger and busier than ever, and expectations are higher too.
LPs are raising the bar for operational maturity and transparency
Regulators are watching more closely, with stricter requirements on reporting
Technology is available that makes manual lapses feel less forgivable.
In this context, settlement risk isn’t theoretical. It’s real, and it can undermine performance and credibility if ignored.
Turning settlement into a strength
The upside: settlement risk is highly manageable with the right approach. Leading managers are already tackling it by:
Automating settlement workflows to cut out manual errors.
Building strong data pipelines so front-, middle-, and back-office teams stay aligned.
Leaning on specialist administrators who bring proven processes and oversight.
Treating settlement as part of risk management instead of just a clean-up task after a deal closes.
Handled this way, settlement shifts from being a vulnerability to a proof point of resilience — and a way to strengthen investor trust.
Conclusion: from risk to resilience
In private markets, smooth settlement doesn’t usually make headlines. But when it fails, it causes immediate pain: delayed cash flows, misstated valuations, interest loss, and questions from investors.
Managers who get this right don’t just avoid mistakes. They show they’re operationally mature, ready to scale, and capable of meeting rising investor and regulatory expectations.
Settlement may be behind the scenes, but it’s foundational. And in a market where complexity keeps growing, mastering it is one of the clearest ways to reduce risk — and stand apart for the right reasons.
When to migrate a private equity fund and how to do it
Alter Domus has supported a wide range of private equity fund migrations globally, building up a deep bank of internal expertise and track record that private equity managers can rely on when changing administrators.
In this guide Alter Domus shares its insights into why private equity firms are migrating funds in greater numbers and the technology and operational capabilities private equity firms are looking for when changing administrator.
October 2, 2025
The operating context for the private equity manager has completely transformed during the last decade and many firms are preparing to migrate their funds as a result.
Buyout firms are now managing US$4.7 trillion of assets and holding almost twice as many portfolio companies in their funds than in 2019, according toBain & Company figures.
With the buyout industry operating on a completely different scale than 10 years, the demands on the buyout back office have inevitably intensified. This not just because GPs are now responsible for shepherding a larger number of funds, shepherding bigger portfolios, and executing a higher volume of deals. Managers also have to comply with higher investor and advisor demands when it comes to the granularity and timeliness reporting.
The evolution of deal structures, which now include co-investments and continuation vehicle transactions, have placed further workloads on private equity operations, as have the increasing use of fund finance and the growth of the non-institutional investor base.
Time for a change: when to migrate funds
The increasing complexity and sophistication of the private equity business means that buyout managers are now facing an operational inflection point, where the relatively simple operating infrastructure that has served the industry so well for so long now requires an upgrade.
Similarly, long-standing outsourcing partnerships, where outsourcers were only required to provide quarterly fund reports, could now also require a refresh.
It is in this context that a series of trigger points are emerging for buyout managers to take the leap and migrate funds. This is not a decision to be taken lightly – fund migrations are complex, demanding projects that can be at risk of costing more and taking longer than anticipated – but many private firms are now approaching a point where delaying a migration can’t be put off any longer.
Why managers migrate funds
Poor service: As the demands on outsourcing partnerships have increased, there are more reports of private equity firms citing poor service delivery as a catalyst for migration. Fund administrators still running on legacy systems, using inflexible reporting templates and relying on manual processes have been unable to keep up with the reporting timelines and detail that private equity firms and their investors now expect. This in turn can lead to errors and delays. Managers will expedite migrations when incumbents can’t keep pace with evolving GP requirements, switching to administrators that have the tools and scale to stay ahead of increasing regulatory and reporting workloads.
Provision of scale: Deteriorating service levels can often be boiled down to a question of scale. Private equity managers have seen huge increases in assets under management (AUM) and in many cases simply outgrow the capacity of incumbent providers and have to move on to providers that have the bandwidth to grow with a manager over time and handle rising transaction volumes and a wider array of fund structures.
Keeping costs down: Private equity managers are facing the most challenging fundraising market since the 2008 financial crisis, with private equity fundraising down 17% year-on-year in H1 2025, according to PEIfigures. It has been essential, then, for private equity firms to run fund operations as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible and delivering value for money for LPs. Indeed, a Preqin survey found that well over a quarter of managers (29%) see pricing and fee transparency as a key catalyst for changing fund administration provider.
Up-tiering technology: The requirement to upgrade technology stacks and transition onto best-of-breed industry software packages will be a driver of fund migration for private equity managers, who are increasingly relying on fund administration partners to not only act as a provider of outsourced fund reporting services, but also a first point of contact for advice on the choice and implementation of technology. Preqin’s survey found that close to a fifth of managers change fund administrator because of technology.
How to choose a new fund administrator
The reasons that trigger a fund migration will also shape what a private equity manager wants from a new fund administration provider.
The ask will vary from manager to manager, depending on investor base, current gaps in in back-office operations, technology requirements and geographic footprint.
There are nevertheless a set of core themes that will inform fund administration selection in most cases:
Asset class expertise: Experience and track record in private equity matter. GPs will expect their fund administrator to have deep private equity expertise. Geographic reach is also important. GPs want fund administrators to be close to the specific LP communication, reporting and fund structure preferences in all key global markets, and to have teams on the ground where investors are active.
Exceptional technology and data capability: Technology is viewed as the single most valuable lever for making private equity back-offices more efficient and for meeting increasing investor demands. The sophisticated investors will have a firm working knowledge of the asset-specific software programs, including Allvue, eFront, Private Capital Suite (formerly Investran) and Yardi, and able to advise on the technology stacks suited to each client’s bespoke requirements. Managers also expect fund administrators to facilitate seamless integration and interoperability between the private equity firm’s core back-office infrastructure and third-party data providers. Fund administrators should also be able to implement cloud-native operating models, have an eye on the developments around self-service data for clients, and meet the highest cyber security standards and certifications.
Operational model flexibility: A change of fund administrator also opens an opportunity for private equity GPs to review operating models, and to transition to an operating model that best serves long-term growth ambitions and technical requirements. GPs will favor fund administrators that can provide operational flexibility, whether that be through a classic outsourcing arrangement, a co-sourcing model or a lift out.
Comprehensive regulatory knowledge: Keeping track of myriad regulatory developments across multiple jurisdictions has become increasingly challenging for private equity to sustain without support, especially for US managers operating in Europe and/or the United Kingdom. Managers are relying on fund administrators to be up to date on all key regulatory developments, range from the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive II (AIFMD II), Common Reporting Standard (CRS) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Automated regulatory reporting and compliance is also becoming a more common ask, as managers look for ways to lighten the regulatory compliance burden.
Service excellence: Responsiveness and service excellence are a must for all GPs, who are now drafting detailed service level agreements (SLAs) with trackable key performance indicators (KPIs) around processing times and reporting accuracy. The best administrators will understand each client’s context and proactive when it comes to addressing client requirements.
A long-term partnership
When undertaking a fund migration, a private equity manager will want the relationship with a new fund administrator to be a long-term one. It is not in GP or LP interests to be constantly having to migrate funds.
As a fund administrator operating at scale Alter Domus has the resources and private equity-specific expertise to grow with clients, maintain excellent service levels and keep client platforms updated with the latest technological tools. We employ 6,000 professionals across 23 jurisdictions and administer US$3.5 trillion of assets and 36,000 client structures.
We have the scale, technology and industry knowledge to not only facilitate smooth fund migrations that cover the shifting requirements of the modern private equity manager but also put platforms and relationships in place that last for the long-term.
Discover how strengthening agency services helps private credit manager enhance transparency, mitigate risk, and ensure operational resilience across complex loan structures.
A Quiet Function with Outsized Impact
In private markets, operational infrastructure often sits in the background — until it fails. Among the most critical, and most overlooked, is the Agency. Far from a clerical role, the agent is the contractual backbone of loan agreements: keeping registers accurate, payments flowing, compliance monitored, and communications clear. Done well, the role is invisible; done poorly, it can cause disputes, delays, and reputational harm that ripple across every stakeholder.
Private Credit: Growth Brings Complexity
Private credit has grown into a core pillar of global finance. The U.S. Federal Reserve estimates the U.S. private credit market at USD 1.34 trillion as of mid-2024, with global totals nearing USD 2 trillion. J.P. Morgan notes it has expanded at roughly 14.5% annually over the past decade, making it one of the fastest-growing corners of alternatives.
This expansion has brought greater complexity. Facilities are now larger, more syndicated, multi-tranche, and frequently cross-border. With this scale, the margin for operational error narrows, and the Agency has become a strategic safeguard for transparency and trust.
The Shifting Demands of Private Markets
Ten years ago, private credit often meant bilateral loans or small club deals. Today, managers are navigating multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional facilities with heavy reporting obligations.
At the same time:
Investors and regulators expect more: Transparency and timely data are now baseline requirements.
Amendments and restructurings are common: Higher interest rates are testing borrowers, making flexibility and governance critical.
Operational resilience is scrutinized: Lenders demand confidence that data, payments, and records are accurate at all times.
The Agency has evolved from administrator to stabilizing force at the center of increasingly complex credit markets.
Getting Agency Services Right
To mitigate risks, managers must view the Agency not as a back-office utility but as a critical partner. The following areas are essential:
1. Independence and Impartiality
An Agency must act for all lenders equally, without bias. Independence ensures trust, especially during contentious votes or restructurings.
2. Accuracy as the Foundation
From payment flows to lender registers, precision is everything. The agent’s records are often the “source of truth” in disputes; they must be beyond reproach.
3. Proactive Compliance and Monitoring
Covenant oversight, reporting obligations, and regulatory checks cannot be reactive. A strong agent anticipates deadlines, flags risks early, and provides confidence that nothing is missed.
4. Event−Ready Expertise
Defaults, amendments, and restructurings are inevitable in today’s markets. The true test of an agent is how they perform under stress: fast, organized, and with continuity for all parties.
5. Technology−Enabled Transparency
In an era where stakeholders expect real-time access to information, portals and digital tools are essential. They transform the agent from a bottleneck into an enabler of transparency.
6. Scale with a Human Touch
Global coverage, certified processes, and scalable platforms matter — but so too does responsiveness. Managers should seek agents who combine infrastructure with service.
What Happens When Agency Fails
The risks of weak agency support are rarely visible until they become unavoidable. Consider the following scenarios:
Inaccurate registers leading to disputes over who holds voting rights during an amendment.
Delayed notices causing lenders to miss funding deadlines, damaging borrower relationships.
Weak default handling resulting in inconsistent lender communication and prolonged restructurings.
Regulatory missteps such as missed tax reporting or inadequate sanctions screening, creating compliance exposure.
Each of these outcomes not only disrupts individual deals but also undermines confidence in a manager’s operating platform. In a market where credibility is paramount, the stakes are high.
From Administrator to Strategic Partner
The best Agents are those whose presence is barely felt — not because their role is minor, but because they execute it flawlessly. In the fast-evolving world of private markets, where complexity and scrutiny are rising, the importance of getting agency services right cannot be overstated.
For managers, the choice of an Agent is not a back-office detail. It is a strategic decision that underpins trust with lenders, protects reputations, and ensures that operational resilience matches investment ambition.
Future-Proofing Governance: Building Operational Strength for Endowments and Foundations
Discover how future-proof governance can transform your endowment’s operations into a strategic advantage. See why strong oversight, scalable systems, and expert partnerships are essential for sustainable growth.
For directors of investment operations, governance is the foundation of effective portfolio management, accurate data, and risk control. In today’s landscape of rising regulatory demands and complex alternatives, strong governance is also a strategic asset.
Future-proof governance enables teams to move beyond reactive measures, creating resilient systems that enhance accuracy and credibility. This shift allows teams to focus on high-value tasks that drive portfolio success.
Raising Standards with confidence
Operational teams must deliver timely, precise data to boards, auditors, and regulators, facing higher expectations for transparency and risk oversight. For leaders, this is an opportunity to demonstrate that governance is a competitive advantage.
Robust processes foster confidence, reduce rework, and empower investment committees with better decision-making tools. At Alter Domus, we see organizations that strengthen governance not only meet current demands but also confidently explore new strategies and investment opportunities.
What Future-Ready Governance looks like in Practice
Future-proof governance is about strengthening operational infrastructure. For investment operations leaders, it means:
Resilient systems that maintain accuracy and continuity through staff turnover or market disruption.
Scalable processes that can handle the growing demands of alternatives – managing capital calls, monitoring liquidity, and tracking performance, etc – without adding headcount
Integrated reporting that provides a single version of the truth for boards, auditors, and investment committees.
Independent oversight that validates calculations, reduces operational risk, and enhances credibility with stakeholders.
With these pillars in place, governance supports efficiency and insight rather than slowing things down.
Outsourcing as a governance accelerator
Many endowments and foundations operate with lean teams, making it challenging to invest in the infrastructure required for governance at scale. Outsourcing fund administration provides a solution by reinforcing internal teams rather than replacing them. A strong partner like Alter Domus delivers:
Independent NAV and reconciliations, creating objectivity and reducing the risk of error.
Best-practice processes, refined across hundreds of institutional clients and seamlessly integrated into the operating model.
Technology-enabled transparency, giving operations leaders instant access to dashboards and reports without heavy internal investment.
Capacity relief, allowing teams to redirect time and talent toward strategic projects rather than manual processing.
In this way, outsourcing becomes a governance accelerator, embedding institutional-quality controls and reporting into organizations with leaner resources.
Tangible benefits for operations teams
When governance is strengthened through the right systems and partners, operations leaders see immediate, positive impacts. Audits proceed with greater speed and efficiency, requiring fewer adjustments and minimizing back-and-forth communication. This streamlining allows teams to concentrate on strategic initiatives rather than administrative burdens.
Board and committee reports become timelier and more insightful, establishing operations as a trusted source of decision-ready intelligence. This evolution enhances the quality of discussions and decisions at the highest levels.
Risk oversight improves, enabling proactive monitoring of exposures, cash flows, and liquidity across complex portfolios, fostering a culture of preparedness. As operational credibility increases so does trust from boards, donors, and external stakeholders. This strengthened relationship, built on transparency and reliability, lays a solid foundation for future collaboration and success, positioning organizations for sustainable growth.
Governance as an enabler of operational excellence
For directors of investment operations, future-proof governance means building a robust infrastructure that navigates today’s complexities while adapting to tomorrow’s demands. It minimizes risk, boosts efficiency, and empowers teams beyond back-office functions.
At Alter Domus, we specialize in helping endowments and foundations achieve this balance. By merging deep expertise in alternatives with advanced technology and independent oversight, we transform governance into a strategic asset. The outcome is a reliable data environment, clear reporting, and investment staff focused on strategy rather than reconciliations. In this context, governance becomes an enabler of operational excellence, key to sustaining efficiency and trust for the future.
The Hidden Lever of Growth in Private Equity: Getting Operations Right
Discover how private equity firms can unlock hidden value by focusing on operational excellence, not just financial engineering. This article reveals why getting operations right is the true lever for sustainable growth and competitive advantage.
In private equity, scale is often measured by the size of funds raised or the number of deals closed. However, sustainable growth relies more on the operational backbone that supports these activities. Strong operations are the hidden lever of growth. They enable firms to raise larger funds, expand into new strategies, and gain investor confidence. As investor bases deepen and structures multiply, operational resilience becomes critical to managing rising investor volume without sacrificing accuracy, speed, and transparency.
How Strong Operations Unlock Growth in Private Equity
Private equity firms today face a complex operating environment. Expanding into adjacent strategies like private credit, real estate, or infrastructure necessitates improved reporting, compliance, and governance. Investors demand faster insights, greater transparency, and stronger controls. Without a scalable operating model, deal teams may struggle with manual processes, disconnected systems, or overextended staff, resulting in operational drag and stunted growth. The strain is especially evident as investor volume increases – more LPs, more reporting lines, and more complex allocation structures all demand greater automation and oversight.
Effective operations not only mitigate risk but also create operational alpha. Just as portfolio value creation drives financial alpha, streamlined operations allow firms to grow smoothly. Strong operations deliver several key benefits:
Speed to scale: Managers can raise larger funds and enter new markets more quickly when their operating model is flexible.
Investor confidence: Consistent, transparent reporting strengthens relationships with limited partners (LPs) and facilitates re-ups.
Capacity for investor volume: Scalable platforms and standardized workflows allow managers to efficiently handle growth in LP counts and commitments, ensuring investor servicing keeps pace with fund expansion.
Capacity without burnout: Standardized processes and automation allow talent to focus on strategic activities rather than repetitive tasks.
Resilience at scale: Strong governance and controls minimize risks that could impede growth.
Operational alpha is not about cutting costs; it’s about unlocking growth capacity and creating a foundation for sustainable expansion. That includes the ability to absorb increased investor inflows, onboard larger number of LPs, and maintain consistent reporting quality as investor volume rises.
Private equity managers that scale effectively view operations as a growth enabler. Key features of strong operating platforms include integrated technology that connects portfolio, fund, and investor data for real-time decision-making; standardized workflows that reduce duplication and eliminate administrative bottlenecks; high levels of automation that eliminate manual processing errors. Robust governance and controls satisfy both LPs and regulators, while specialized expertise in fund administration, carried interest, waterfalls, and complex structures ensures accuracy and consistency. This combination becomes even more essential as investor volume expands across multiple funds, feeder structures, and geographies – transforming operations from a cost center into a driver of efficiency, resilience, and investor trust.
The investor lens: operations in due diligence
Limited Partners are increasingly evaluating a manager’s operational setup during the allocation process. They want to know:
Are reporting processes transparent and consistent across vintages?
Do compliance and governance frameworks meet global standards?
Can the manager handle growth without sacrificing accuracy or control?
Are systems capable of scaling with investor volume, ensuring transparency and responsiveness even as fund complexity grows?
Operational maturity has become a proxy for risk management and long-term sustainability. Firms that demonstrate strong operations inspire confidence, shorten diligence cycles, and position themselves for smoother fundraising. Conversely, those lacking operational strength may be perceived as fragile, regardless of their deal-making capabilities.
Alter Domus: a partner built for private equity scale
At Alter Domus, we focus on one principle: private equity firms shouldn’t have to choose between growth and control.
Built for Private Markets: Alter Domus North America has +1,800 experts including 500 dedicated Private equity experts with experience ranging from in-house finance teams, fund administrators, audit and tax, and home-grown talent.
Global scale, local knowledge: With over 6,000 professionals across 23 countries, we support cross-border funds while meeting regional regulatory demands.
Lift-outs and co-sourcing: We design people-first transitions that protect culture, retain institutional knowledge, and enhance scalability.
Technology-enabled delivery: Our advanced tools, such as investor reporting portals and automated waterfall calculations, allow firms to focus on value creation.
White-glove service and team structure: Our model emphasizes responsiveness and high-touch client service with a team curated.
The cost of weak operations
Of course, the inverse is also true – neglecting operational foundations exposes firms to risks that hinder scale:
Investor reporting failures: Late or inaccurate reporting erodes LP confidence and can jeopardize future fundraising.
Investor volume bottlenecks: When operating models can’t scale with growing LP bases, mangers face delays in onboarding, allocations, and data delivery−eroding confidence and fundraising momentum.
Regulatory vulnerability: Weak compliance increases exposure to fines, reputational damage, and fundraising restrictions.
Inefficient capital deployment: Delays in capital calls or distributions slow the ability to seize opportunities.
Team burnout: Overburdening lean teams with manual tasks leads to mistakes and attrition, especially when continuity is crucial.
Firms that fail to invest in scalable operations ultimately find themselves constrained—not by market opportunities, but by their own infrastructure.
Navigating the Complexities of European Real Estate Administration
Successfully managing European real estate requires navigating intricate regulatory, accounting, and cross-boarder complexities. We explore how partnering with experienced administrators can streamline operations, reduce risk, and unlock greater value for investors.
Property Companies (PropCos) represent a fundamental structure within real estate investment landscapes across Europe. These dedicated entities are designed to hold, manage, and optimise real estate assets, creating a clear separation between property ownership and operational activities.
Real estate remains one of Europe’s most complex asset classes, presenting unique challenges that extend far beyond simple property ownership. In 2023, Europe concentrated nearly 21% of real estate assets under management by investment managers globally, highlighting its significance in the international investment landscape.Real estate remains one of Europe’s most complex asset classes, presenting unique challenges that extend far beyond simple property ownership. In 2023, Europe concentrated nearly 21% of real estate assets under management by investment managers globally, highlighting its significance in the international investment landscape.
The intricate tapestry of varying regulatory frameworks, accounting standards, and market practices across European jurisdictions creates a multi-dimensional administrative challenge that even seasoned investment professionals find daunting.
In this article, you will explore the key challenges and benefits of outsourcing real estate administration in Europe, providing valuable insights for investment managers navigating this complex landscape
Key Challenges in European Real Estate Administration
1. Regulatory Complexity
The European real estate landscape is characterised by its regulatory diversity, with each jurisdiction maintaining distinct frameworks governing property ownership, management, and taxation. For instance, German real estate regulations differ substantially from those in France or Spain, with unique requirements regarding property registration, tenant rights, and corporate governance.
eal estate accounting presents unique challenges that extend beyond standard corporate accounting practices. Asset-level income and expense treatment requires detailed tracking and allocation, particularly for mixed-use properties or those with multiple tenants.
Tenant incentives and service charge management add another dimension of complexity. The proper accounting treatment of rent-free periods, tenant improvements, and service charge reconciliations requires specialized knowledge and careful documentation. These elements can significantly impact financial performance metrics and must be handled with precision.
3. Asset Diversity Management
European real estate portfolios often encompass diverse asset types, each with unique administrative requirements. Residential, commercial, and industrial properties present distinct challenges in terms of tenant management, maintenance requirements, and regulatory compliance.
Strategy-specific accounting requirements further complicate the picture. Core, value-add, and opportunistic investment strategies each present unique accounting challenges, from capitalisation policies to performance metric calculations. PropCo administrators must tailor their accounting approaches to align with the specific investment strategies being employed.
4. Property Manager Coordination
Effective PropCo administration requires seamless coordination with property managers who oversee day-to-day operations. This coordination is complicated by the diverse property management systems used across Europe, each generating data in different formats and with varying levels of detail.
Reconciling inconsistent reporting formats represents a significant challenge. Property managers across different European jurisdictions often employ localized reporting templates and methodologies.
The transition from cash to accrual accounting presents another coordination challenge. While property managers typically focus on cash-based operational metrics, PropCo administrators must convert this information to accrual-based accounting for financial reporting purposes.
5. Cross-Border Reporting Challenges
PropCo administrators managing pan-European portfolios face significant reporting challenges. Converting local GAAP financial statements to group-level reporting standards requires specialised knowledge and careful reconciliation. This process is particularly complex for portfolios spanning multiple jurisdictions with divergent accounting practices.
Timeline coordination with diverse local teams presents logistical challenges. Different reporting timelines, holiday schedules, and business practices across European jurisdictions can complicate the consolidation process.
PropCo administrators must develop efficient coordination mechanisms to ensure timely, accurate reporting despite these variations. Maintaining compliance across jurisdictions requires vigilant monitoring of regulatory changes.
6. Language and Communications Barriers
The multilingual nature of European real estate markets introduces documentation management challenges. Property-related documents, contracts, and regulatory filings may be in various languages, requiring translation and interpretation for effective administration. This multilingual environment increases the risk of misunderstandings and administrative errors.
Legal and financial terminology varies significantly across European jurisdictions, even when using the same language. These variations increase the risk of misinterpretation, particularly in complex contractual or regulatory contexts. PropCo administrators must navigate these linguistic nuances to ensure accurate interpretation and implementation.
Benefits of Outsourcing Real Estate Administration
1. Specialized Regulatory Expertise
Outsourcing PropCo administration gives you access to jurisdiction-specific expertise that would be painfully expensive to build in-house. Professional administrators have teams who know the ins and outs of multiple European jurisdictions, helping you navigate complex regulatory landscapes with confidence.
This expertise significantly cuts your compliance risk. With professionals keeping a watchful eye on regulatory changes across European markets, you’re less likely to face penalties or operational hiccups due to compliance oversights.
2. Real Estate-Specific Knowledge
Professional administrators excel at turning complex asset performance data into meaningful accounting metrics. They understand both the operational realities of real estate and the accounting principles needed to report accurately.
They’re also invaluable for transaction management. Their deep knowledge of real estate deals—from structuring acquisitions to planning dispositions—means more efficient transactions and better tax positioning.
Perhaps most importantly, they provide strategic financial insights that transform administrative work from a cost burden into a value driver, helping investment managers spot opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
3. Data Quality and Reporting Enhancements
Third-party fund administration providers bring consistency to your data. Their standardized collection processes across different property types and jurisdictions ensure reliable information for meaningful portfolio analysis.
You’ll gain deeper performance insights, too. With their market experience and specialised tools, administrators uncover hidden performance drivers and improvement opportunities. Better data leads to smarter decisions.
4. Cost Efficiency Benefits
Outsourcing slashes administrative overhead. No need to build and maintain specialist teams across multiple jurisdictions. It’s a fixed-cost reduction that matters.
Professional administrators deliver higher quality at lower cost. They leverage economies of scale and specialized expertise across multiple clients efficiently. But the biggest win is that investment managers can refocus on what truly matters: deal sourcing, investment strategy, and investor relations.
5. Scalability Advantages
Professional administrators adapt seamlessly to changing portfolio sizes and compositions—crucial in dynamic investment environments where portfolios shift through acquisitions and dispositions.
As your portfolio grows, complexity doesn’t mean proportionally higher costs. This scalability gives outsourcing a significant edge over in-house functions, which typically require substantial resource increases to handle growth. Your administrative support grows with you, without the growing pains.
Conclusion
Managing European real estate entities presents significant challenges due to complex regulations, accounting practices, and cross-border coordination requirements.
Outsourcing administration to experienced real estate fund service providers delivers critical advantages in compliance expertise, operational efficiency, and scalability. By partnering with a professional administrator, investment managers can free resources to focus on deal origination, portfolio strategy, and value creation.
As the European real estate market evolves, effective PropCo administration becomes increasingly important as a competitive differentiator. Investment managers who recognize this function’s strategic importance will be better positioned to navigate complexities, optimize structures, and deliver superior investor value in this challenging sector.
Structured Fund Vehicles: Navigating Operational Issues in Rated Note Feeders and Collateralized Fund Obligations (CFOs)
As private markets expand, CFOs and COOs face mounting complexity in structuring Rated Note Feeders and Collateralized Fund Obligations (CFOs)−requiring precise administration to safeguard transparency, control, and investor confidence.
October 10, 2025
CFOs and COOs in private markets face a growing challenge: meeting investor demand for access and yield while safeguarding operational resilience. Structured vehicles — particularly Collateralized Fund Obligations (CFOs) and Rated Note Feeders — have become powerful tools for broadening distribution and optimizing capital structures.
But with opportunity comes operational and governance complexity. The question is not only whether these vehicles can be launched, but whether they can be run with the rigor investors, auditors, and regulators now expect. The answer often hinges on the choice of the collateral and fund administrator — and whether they can provide the control, transparency, and scalability leadership teams require.
Collateralized Fund Obligations (CFOs)
CFOs transform pools of private market fund interests into multi-tranche vehicles, offering investors differentiated risk-return options. For CFOs and COOs, they bring both opportunity and exposure.
Operational Issue
How the Right Fund Administrator Solves It
Complex Waterfalls
Errors in multi-tranche allocations can result in misstatements that damage investor trust. Administrators with automated waterfall engines provide accuracy, control, and audit-ready assurance.
Complex Waterfalls SPV and Jurisdiction Complexity
Managing multiple SPVs across borders strains finance teams. Experienced administrators centralize multi-jurisdiction activity into coherent reporting, reducing risk and inefficiency.
Transparency Pressure
Investors demand real-time tranche-level performance. Without it, credibility suffers. Leading partners deliver dashboards and tailored reporting that reinforce confidence.
Liquidity Interdependencies
Stress in one tranche can ripple across the structure. The best administrators use stress-testing and liquidity modeling to give executives foresight into risks.
Regulatory and Audit Scrutiny
Errors invite prolonged audits or regulatory intervention. Administrators with robust compliance frameworks help CFOs and COOs demonstrate institutional-grade governance
Rated Note Feeders
Rated Note Feeders offer a scalable way to open private market strategies to yield-seeking institutions such as insurers. But they bring challenges that land squarely on the desks of CFOs and COOs.
Pitfall
How the Right Fund Administrator Solves It
Cash Flow Matching
Liquidity gaps between fund distributions and feeder obligations can create reputational risk. Administrators with real-time reconciliation systems prevent mismatches and protect investor confidence.
Interest Rate and FX Risk
Manual oversight of accruals and currency flows risks financial misstatements. Strong partners automate interest and FX processes, delivering control and accuracy.
Investor Reporting
Yield-focused investors and ratings agencies demand consistency. Administrators provide timely, investor-grade reports, ensuring alignment with external expectations.
Regulatory Complexity
Cross-border feeders invite compliance scrutiny. Administrators with multi-jurisdictional expertise help executives demonstrate governance and avoid regulatory missteps.
Operational Bottlenecks
Manual reconciliations and covenant monitoring tie up finance teams. The right partner uses automation and scale to streamline operations and free resources.
Alter Domus: Our structured vehicle expertise
For finance and operations leaders, the choice of fund administrator is ultimately about control, credibility, and scalability. The strongest partners bring depth of expertise in structured vehicles like CFOs and rated feeders, combined with breadth across the wider private markets ecosystem — commingled funds, co-invests, SMAs, and SPVs. This breadth matters: it allows CFOs and COOs to consolidate providers, reduce operational fragmentation, and ensure consistent governance across all fund types.
The right administrator also provides confidence that every process — from cash allocation to reporting — can withstand investor, auditor, and regulatory scrutiny. They invest in technology to minimize manual intervention, deliver transparency that strengthens investor relationships, and act as proactive partners in anticipating risks before they materialize.
CFOs and COOs today are not simply managing back-office operations; they are responsible for safeguarding investor trust and enabling their firms to scale. Structured vehicles such as CFOs and Rated Note Feeders magnify both the opportunity and the operational risks of private markets.
Why COOs and CFOs of Wealth Managers, Multi-Family Offices, and OCIOs Should Consider Outsourced Fund Administration
Rising operational complexity, lean teams, and expanding investment mandates are driving wealth managers and family offices to consider outsourced fund administration.
October 2, 2025
Why consider outsourced fund administration
As a COO or CFO of a wealth manager, multi-family office, or OCIO, you carry a responsibility that extends well beyond numbers. You’re not just managing books—you’re safeguarding a family’s legacy, ensuring operational resilience, and giving principals the confidence that their capital is stewarded with precision. That mandate has only grown more complex.
Expanding into direct deals, private credit, real estate, and cross-border structures means you’re expected to deliver institutional-grade reporting, governance, and controls—often with lean teams and finite resources. It’s a balancing act: meeting rising operational demands while protecting the office’s agility and focus. This is exactly where an outsourced fund administration model becomes invaluable.
Why outsourced fund administration fits the wealth manager, multi-family, and OCIO office model
Outsourcing isn’t about relinquishing control—it’s about fortifying your operational backbone so that you can focus on higher-value work. A trusted fund administrator brings:
Accuracy and independence – Third-party validation of NAVs, cash flows, and performance ensures credibility with stakeholders.
Scalability – As the family invests in new strategies or regions, outsourced infrastructure flexes with you.
Technology advantage – Purpose-built platforms for data management, accounting, reporting, and investor visibility—without the heavy lift of implementation or maintenance.
Efficiency – Offloading data feeds, document management, reconciliations, financial preparation, audit management, and compliance tasks frees your time for strategic planning and governance.
Credibility – Enhances your standing with advisory clients, auditors, partners, and institutional co-investors by demonstrating best-practice operations.
What sets Alter Domus apart as an outsourced or co-sourced solution
For COOs and CFOs of wealth managers and multi-family offices, partnering with Alter Domus means strengthening your operational backbone without losing control. Our model is built to meet the rising demands of complex investment offices while safeguarding the agility and stewardship your principals expect.
Knowledgeable staff – Our teams bring deep experience in IBOR and ABOR reporting, as well as NAV calculation, cash flow management, and investor reporting. Whether working within our licensed systems or those licensed by your firm, we ensure that operations run smoothly and in full compliance.
Service level agreements: We commit to aggressive SLAs that ensure timely, accurate posting of data across portfolios, enabling you to meet reporting deadlines with confidence. That reliability frees your office to focus on value-add initiatives like strategic allocations, family governance, or new market entry.
Thought leadership: We don’t just administer funds; we help shape back-office strategy. Our specialists assess your operational set-up and advise on process redesign, technology choices, and efficiency measures – helping you protect long-term advisory fees and build resilience as your family office grows in complexity.
Built for alternatives: Alter Domus was created to serve private capital. From private equity and venture to private debt, infrastructure, and real estate, we understand the nuances of alternative assets and how to integrate them into family portfolios. That expertise ensures your reporting, governance, and investor communications reflect institutional-grade standards.
Global scale with local relevance: With more than 6,000 professionals across 23+ jurisdictions, Alter Domus delivers the reach and regulatory expertise of a global leader. Crucially, we know how to apply that scale to the needs of smaller wealth managers and multi-family offices—bringing institutional-grade processes, controls, and insights to leaner teams without overburdening them.
Technology advantage: Our purpose-built platforms reduce manual processing, harmonize data feeds, and deliver investor-ready reporting. For offices running lean teams, this alleviates the burden of system implementation and ongoing maintenance, while ensuring transparency and auditability.
Operational assurance: From capital calls and waterfall allocations to audit coordination and compliance checks, we provide institutional-grade rigor. That strengthens your credibility with auditors, trustees, and co-investors—key for offices balancing family dynamics with professional governance.
Flexible engagement models: Whether you want a traditional outsourced solution, a co-sourced arrangement where you retain data ownership, or even a lift-out of existing in-house teams, Alter Domus tailors its approach to preserve continuity while enabling scale.
What this means for COOs and CFOs
As a COO or CFO, you sit at the heart of your company’s success. You’re tasked with ensuring both operational excellence and strategic foresight. We see what your peers are doing and understand which processes work.
In today’s complex landscape, outsourcing fund administration is not about giving up responsibility—it’s about giving yourself the tools, expertise, and confidence to meet the family’s needs today and for generations to come.
The Tax Challenge in Private Capital: How to Scale without Risk
Tax compliance in private capital has become a board-level issue. Rising regulatory demands, growing fund structures, and leaner teams leave managers with little room for error. The firms that adopt now will safeguard investor confidence and avoid costly setbacks.
Tax compliance in private capital has shifted from a back-office task to a board-level priority. Federal and state filings, 1065 partnership returns, K-1s, FATCA/CRS, and 1099 reporting all converge under strict deadlines — and investor confidence depends on getting them right. For many firms, the question is no longer if they can keep up, but how to do so without overburdening already stretched teams.
The Weight of Rising Tax Demands
As private capital funds grow, so do their filing obligations. Teams face an unrelenting tax cycle that requires accuracy, speed, and continuity. Yet many managers struggle with:
Rising complexity: Multiple fund structures, investor demands, and cross-jurisdictional reporting.
Limited capacity: Lean teams balancing tax alongside other operational responsibilities.
Turnover risk: The loss of a single experienced professional can erase institutional knowledge overnight.
These pressures are magnified by shifting expectations. Regulators continue to expand cross-border requirements, while investors demand greater transparency and faster turnaround. What was once treated as a compliance function has become a visible measure of operational maturity — and firms that fall behind risk eroding investor trust.
Experience that Scales
Meeting these challenges requires a model that can handle scale without sacrificing quality. Alter Domus supports:
1,466 funds supported with tax services annually
1,200 Federal and State tax returns reviewed annually
435 funds supported with dedicated tax return reviews
300 funds served with FATCA/CRS filings
These numbers highlight more than just scale — they reflect the way managers are choosing to structure their tax function. Many continue to use a Big 4 firm for preparation, while relying on Alter Domus for reviews, coordination, and data management. This model reduces back-and-forth, ensures continuity year after year, and allows firms to expand without adding internal headcount.
A Smarter Model for Tax Support
The most effective models extend beyond outsourcing. They integrate seamlessly with existing tax preparers and in-house processes, acting as an extension of the manager’s team.
For many firms, the challenge isn’t who prepares the return — it’s the review and coordination around it. Some want to keep a Big 4 firm on preparation but lack the bandwidth or expertise to manage the process. Others have lost in-house tax staff and the knowledge that left with them.
Alter Domus’ tax review and data coordination services were built to fill this gap — offering fractional expertise that reduces back-and-forth with preparers, ensures continuity, and avoids the overhead of hiring full-time staff.
Priorities for Managers
Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chief Operating Officers (COOs) in private capital face three key imperatives:
Accuracy: Every return and report is thoroughly reviewed to the highest standard.
Efficiency: Faster turnaround times through streamlined coordination with preparers.
Compliance: Reliable 1065, FATCA/CRS, and 1099 reporting across jurisdictions.
Meeting these expectations requires more than capacity — it requires the right partnership.
A Partner for What Comes Next
Alter Domus combines deep private capital expertise with the scale and continuity today’s tax environment demands. Our teams don’t replace your preparers — we work alongside them, ensuring reviews are rigorous, data is coordinated, and deadlines are met without disruption.
By reducing the back-and-forth between administrators, preparers, and internal teams, we free managers to focus on growth while knowing investor expectations will be met. And as reporting requirements continue to tighten, we provide the stability to keep pace without adding internal headcount.
For private capital managers, tax isn’t slowing down. With Alter Domus, you don’t have to choose between accuracy, efficiency, and scale — you get them all.
