Meet the Juniper Square administration team

Whether you’re launching a new fund, thinking about switching from your current administrator, or just need help with ongoing deal administration and accounting issues, finding the right fit with your administrator is key. They should deliver a great experience for your investors, understand your industry, and employ tech-driven processes to drive efficiency and reduce risk. The Juniper Square Administration team delivers on all fronts.

Our business grew by more than 5x over the past year and our team has grown rapidly to keep pace. We’ve brought together a group of experts who understand the administration business from their time at third-party administrators, investment managers, and public accounting firms.

The individuals that make up our modern administration team are really what sets us apart from our competitors. They are committed to your success and to helping you serve your investors better. And bу automating and improving accounting and investor servicing processes, they can help your firm be more productive and perform at the highest level. Together, they can transform the way your business operates.

Experience:

20+ years

Past Firms:

Northern Trust, EY

Industry experience:

Real estate, private equity, hedge funds, and audit

The approach at Juniper Square is completely different from what I’ve experienced at other administrators. From day one, we’ve worked to deliver great experiences to both GPs and LPs. And we do that by bringing together teams with a diverse set of skills (product managers, engineers, designers) to collaborate and build solutions to the administration challenges facing our clients and our internal teams. Quite frankly, this is something I haven’t seen to the same extent elsewhere.

Technology has taken on new importance. The administration challenges the industry faces can no longer be resolved by just the IT department. They can only be solved when technology development is one of the administrator’s core capabilities. That then allows administrators to meet the increasing expectations of GPs and their investors.

GPs are expected to be more transparent. They’re facing rising regulatory and compliance demands, fee structures have been under pressure, and there’s more competition for deals. That means they need to expect more than just accounting services from their administrator. They should be looking for an administration partner who can help them navigate these challenges and who can help strengthen their overall business.

Start by finding the administration partner that’s right for you, and make sure you ask the right questions and get the answers you need to make that decision. Once you’ve found the right partner, invest in the relationship. That close relationship will pay dividends as they help you navigate through changes in compliance, reporting, and accounting standards.

A forward-thinking mindset also goes a long way. We’re seeing GPs implement more creative—and often more complex—fee and management provisions into their fund documents in response to changing investor expectations.

Experience:

10+ years

Past firms:

UMB, Dakota Pacific

Industry experience:

Real estate, private equity, fund of funds, private credit, and family offices

Juniper Square is taking a tech-forward, digital-first approach to fund administration. But we’re not digital-only. Even though we’re constantly pursuing automation, we know it takes tenured professionals to make the whole process work. I personally saw the unique opportunity and strategic position that Juniper Square had created, and I wanted to help build a modern fund administration company.

Juniper Square was already a leader in investment management software and now it is one of the fastest-growing fund administration firms in the world. For me, the most exciting thing about this is that Juniper Square is only going to get better over the upcoming years. That’s different from traditional administrators who are sticking to what they’ve been doing for the past 10+ years. And we’re not just here to be the best fund administration company, we’re here to make private markets more transparent, efficient, and accessible.

There has been explosive growth in private markets and that growth looks set to continue. That’s driving expectations for more seamless processes and greater transparency. We’ve seen some of those changes already happen in public markets (many of which are heavily technology-enabled) and we’re seeing similar developments in private markets as well.

Don’t fall behind and settle for a status quo experience for your investors; their expectations are rising. The typical high net worth investor profile is rapidly changing and the new generation is used to having everything they need on demand. Make sure your internal teams and your external partners are set up to meet those needs.

Experience:

15+ years

Past firms:

AlterDomus, RSM

Industry experience:

Private equity, real estate, venture capital, venture debt, private credit, hybrid funds, BDCs, and SBICs

I love that accounting is full of opportunities to solve problems. I think about accounting as my “craft” because it’s more than just a profession to me and I am truly passionate about accounting and private equity as a whole. One of our many responsibilities is to help our clients find the proper accounting treatment that applies to their circumstances so they can focus on making the best investment decisions for their investors.

Accounting departments are becoming leaner and that means administrators are an increasingly critical partner for financial reporting, treasury, compliance, and investor services. This is happening against a backdrop of increased domestic and international regulations, greater demands for KYC processes, and an imperative to manage cybersecurity risks. Administrators have a key role to play to help their clients meet these demands.

There is a lot of dry powder waiting to be deployed. This puts pressure on managers of all sizes to be in a position to respond quickly to investment opportunities as soon as they arise. Because of that, they cannot always be focused on fund operations. Instead, they need to dedicate their energy to raising money and sourcing deals.

Beyond the pressure to fundraise, there are additional regulatory and structuring complexities for GPs to navigate. As a few examples, Irish Limited Partnerships and the UK’s most recent Qualified Asset Holding Company (QACH) have emerged to help manage tax consequences for certain types of investors.

In the United States, there have been additional regulations put in place by the IRS such as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which came out of the Dodd Frank Act of 2010.

More recently, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA) added more robust regulations and oversight over closed-end funds with the passage of the Private Funds Bill of 2020. Though not all GPs are directly affected by all of these changes, it’s important that they stay on top of changing regulations and guidance as they manage their funds.

Focus on communication and transparency. That goes a long way in helping GPs get the most out of the relationship with their administrator.

First-time fund managers should also know that it is extremely critical to have valuation policies in place and a strong narrative to help explain their rationale for each investment. This will help substantiate their investment valuation decisions during the audit process and will provide greater transparency to investors, which ultimately strengthens those relationships.

Ready to partner with us? Contact Juniper Square to find out more about Modern Administration.