Intermediary fees make up a significant amount of a mutual fund company’s annual expenses. The complexity and the volume of these fees continue to increase, which means it’s crucial for a firm’s fee management program to be robust, efficient and all-encompassing in order to avoid erroneous expenses, inefficient allocation of resources and unnecessary risk.
Whether it be on a monthly or quarterly basis, asset managers are inundated with fee invoices. Operations teams must parse through all of those invoices to verify that each one is correct and that it aligns with the intermediary’s particular agreement.
They must also allocate payments accurately and be ready to show clear documentation to regulators and the firm’s board, confirming that payments were distributed correctly.
Read on to learn how BetaNXT helped a leading investment management firm overcome these fee management challenges.
Customer Challenge: Seeking a Robust Solution
A prominent US investment management firm overseeing more than $100 billion in assets encountered significant fee management challenges. The firm needed a comprehensive solution to drive automation, improve quality, advance technology, and seamlessly integrate fee management data with intermediary oversight and due diligence processes.
Identifying the Pain Points – Fee Management Challenges
Manual Processes
The firm depended heavily on manual processes for fee payments and allocations, spending significant time reviewing data to ensure payments matched intermediary agreements and prospectuses.
Inefficient Workflow
They faced operational inefficiencies from manually logging and tracking expected invoices and pending agreement changes, leaving the firm vulnerable to errors and unnecessary risk.
Regulatory and Financial Risks
As a result of inadequate invoice receipt and audit capabilities, the firm lacked easy access to historical records with all data points, tasks and transactions, posing regulatory and financial risks.
Implementing a Comprehensive Fee Management Solution
The implementation of BetaNXT’s Fee Management solution addressed these challenges head-on for the firm, providing a comprehensive solution that facilitated their fee management processes and workflows.
Automated Intermediary Fee Processing
Straight-through processing with configurable tolerances enabled automatic approval of accurate invoices and direct flow into payables management. With this automated fee processing, the firm significantly increased operational efficiency, allowing them to redeploy staff toward higher value, strategic initiatives.
Invoice Verification and Analytics
Invoice verification and analytics enabled independent fee audit by comparing the firm’s fee calculations against distribution partners’ invoices. Using distribution transparency data, accounts and contract agreements, fee calculations are performed to confirm that an invoice is correct and matches the billable assets.
Streamlined Workflows
Automated invoice processing streamlined the firm’s fee management workflows, ensuring rapid and accurate analysis of granular-level fee data.
Results with BetaNXT
BetaNXT’s Fee Management solution had major impacts across the organization, including:
Regulatory Impact
Full audit capabilities for role-based duties and approval requirements with automated allocation and reporting reduced the firm’s regulatory risk.
Relationship Impact
Processing times for transfer agent (TA) and omnibus files were reduced by more than 70%, providing faster access to the data needed for invoice receipt and payment—enabling timely, accurate payments to intermediary partners and enhancing the overall service experience.
Reputational Impact
Implementing automated, rules-based intermediary invoice reconciliation streamlined operations and strengthened the firm’s reputation as a trusted and dependable partner.
Transforming Intermediary Fee Management
As regulatory expectations grow and fee structures become more complex, firms must ensure their fee management systems are not only efficient but also fully auditable and compliant. BetaNXT’s Fee Management solution equips asset managers with the tools to confidently navigate regulatory scrutiny, reduce operational risk and maintain transparency across all intermediary relationships.
By automating and centralizing fee processes, firms can shift from reactive compliance to proactive oversight—building trust with regulators, boards and partners alike.
