In the third edition of our annual asset manager survey whitepaper: “RFP/DDQs – Orchestrating A Competitive Advantage For Asset managers”, we share insights from 800+ asset manager. 61% of the firms are in the Americas, 23% in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and 16% in the Asia Pacific region.
In the whitepaper, we discuss six key trends for asset manager RFP/DDQs and diligence teams. While the complexity for these investor relations team is on the rise, technology adoption to support them significantly lags.
Five takeaways for asset manager RFP/DDQ and diligence teams:
- Providing a positive investor experience is rated as a top priority to create and maintain a competitive advantage
- Volume and complexity of due diligence questionnaires has increased. ESG / DEI requests leads the way at 72 percent asset managers noting YoY increase
- Digital data collection is crucial for the industry to embrace a data focus and converge on standards. However, asset managers are struggling to keep up with changing operational dynamics
- Only 26 percent of the investors accept standard diligence materials. The human touch remains critical as the trend for custom requests is going up.
- Technology has the potential to significantly elevate the experience of the teams, and the promise of generative AI cannot be ignored. However, nearly 9 in 10 firms (88%) of firms managing > $100bn respond to over 100 requests, but only 69 percent have a dedicated technology solution. 31 percent still manage the process via Word and Excel
The survey results also highlight the fact that the due diligence information exchange and RFP/DDQs management for asset managers is a unique and many-to-many industry challenge. This results in a redundant and unproductive copy and paste exercise for investor relations and RFP/DDQ teams. Each investor engages with many asset managers. Similarly, each asset manager responds to many investor requests, ranging from a few dozen for smaller firms, to nearly 2000 for firms with $1 trillion+ assets under management.
At asset managers, there are six key stakeholders who are responsible for varying diligence and reporting needs. Their responsibilities span across periodic fundraising specific requests, to ongoing compliance, ESG/DEI, portfolio reporting, regulatory driven and industry related requests. As firms look to scale and build competitive advantage, they need to position themselves to execute on internal strategy, and also align with external industry trends.
The asset manager RFP/DDQ and diligence futurist
The innovation that the industry needs had three critical components:
- Evolution of asset managers operating model,
- Supported by technological innovation, and
- A convergence between asset managers and investors on two key areas
Read the key insights from this year’s survey by downloading the whitepaper below. As you explore the survey insights, do check out how DiligenceVault’s technology is leading and powering industry innovation. Explore Six RFP/DDQ Automation Use Cases and DiligenceVault’s solutions for Asset Managers.
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