The survey, based on responses from over 800 asset manager firms, spanning the Americas (61%), Europe, Middle East, and Africa (23%), and the Asia Pacific region (16%), reveals a set of pivotal insights that underscore the industry’s current challenges and opportunities:

• Providing a positive investor experience is rated as a top priority for asset managers to create and maintain a competitive advantage.
• Volume and complexity of due diligence questionnaires has increased, with ESG / DEI requests leading the way at 72 percent.
• 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.
• The human touch remains critical as the trend for custom requests is going up. Only 26 percent of the investors accept standard diligence materials.
• 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 (88 %) 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.

Ryan Wilding, Product Manager at DiligenceVault, commented: “We’re grateful for the extensive survey response, providing actionable insights into asset managers’ priorities in an uncertain fundraising environment marked by elevated volatility and shifting investor allocation trends. Prioritizing investor experience has become even more vital for asset managers aiming to gain a competitive edge as they grapple with rising complexity, custom requests, volume, and diverse topics.”

The survey also spotlights the distinctive challenge within the asset management industry—a complex, many-to-many due diligence information exchange. This leads to a redundant and unproductive copy-and-paste exercise for investor relations and RFP/DDQ teams as over 75 percent of these requests are custom in nature. Each investor engages with multiple asset managers. Conversely, each asset manager responds to numerous investor requests, ranging from a few dozen for smaller firms to nearly 2000 for those managing assets exceeding $1 trillion.

The current process also touches six key stakeholders at asset management firms 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. 

The solution to this challenge lies in embracing technology. Asset managers can significantly reduce unproductive work, minimize errors, and amplify their team’s capabilities by doing so. Moreover, a centralized technology implementation offers a second-order, underappreciated benefit: it provides analytical insights, streamlines compliance oversight, and facilitates seamless knowledge transfer among teams.

“The results underscore the need for purpose-built and industry-specific technology that makes it easy for asset managers to configure a scalable response for complex firm and product specific diligence requests, ensures efficiency and accuracy across multiple diligence and reporting use cases, and enhances investor experiences by improving asset managers responsiveness and reporting accuracy, all while securely distributing data and documents.” – Wilding said.

In the upcoming months, the team at DiligenceVault will continue to support the needs of our clients and users by delivering new research, industry innovations, and product enhancements in direct response to their invaluable feedback and new functionality requests.

“It’s an exciting time for the industry, ‘ Wilding said. “We are committed to building a future where asset managers and their teams benefit from a synergy of industry and technological innovation. We take pride in our role within the ever-evolving diligence landscape”

Download 2023 survey insights: https://diligencevault.com/2023-global-asset-manager-survey-insights/