Investment Firm Experiences Smooth Transition to NAV

Equinox had already changed administrators a few times previously and were reluctant to devote the time and resources required on their part and potential disruption to investors that could be involved in another transition.

NAV offered Equinox the opportunity to fully test their fund administration services before committing to a transition.

“NAV provided a trial of their services and ran parallel accounting for two months, which allowed us to give their services a test run in our environment to ensure we were comfortable before making a decision to transfer administrators,” Alejo said. “We selected our most complex fund for the trial and were so pleased with the quality of NAV reporting and services that we decided to move all four of our funds to NAV.”

Once the decision was made to transition, Equinox had high expectations for a smooth and prompt switchover with no disruption for investors.

The NAV team members are experts in efficient transitioning based on their experience onboarding a 40%+ share of new NAV clients from other administrators. Existing administration issues that were uncovered during the trial period were also corrected by the NAV team during the transition phase.

“NAV was very organized and thorough during the transition process and were able to complete the transition of four funds in about one month's time,” Alejo said. “The NAV team worked very closely with us and the previous administrator to ensure the process went smoothly. I was very impressed with their attention to detail. The questions asked by the team made it very clear that they had done a very thorough review of our fund documents and were going to map their process accordingly. Additionally, NAV effectively used their portal to run the entire onboarding process, which gave us a kind of transparency we hadn’t seen before. We could easily view where we were in the process every step of the way.”

Accuracy and timeliness of reporting had previously been a consistent concern for Equinox.

NAV’s reliably delivered reports enable Equinox to streamline operations, improve accuracy, and provide better investor service.

Daily estimated NAVs are provided by 8:00 AM ET of the next business day and all monthly fund reporting is typically delivered within two to five working days of period end. “Receiving daily estimated NAVs on a timely basis has allowed us to more proactively identify and address any discrepancies to head off any bigger issues,” Alejo said. She added that problems with reporting timelines they had routinely experienced with prior administrators are now a thing of the past. “NAV’s monthly reporting is always right on time, comprehensive and accurate, which has been a major, highly noticeable upgrade for our fund managers and investors.”

Equinox sought high quality and value-driven fund administration solutions.

NAV’s services are priced more competitively than prior Equinox agreements.

“NAV has a more stable, all-inclusive services offering in comparison to our previous experience,” Alejo said. “Their fee structure is well-defined and tailored to our specific needs. We’ve never been surprised with extra fees for services like setup, onboarding, or portal access. We even requested custom reports on several occasions and they’ve been created for us at no additional cost.”

Investor services weren’t consistently high-quality or responsive with prior providers.

NAV and Equinox maintained investor satisfaction during and post-transition.

Equinox and NAV worked very closely as a team to ensure that investors had a positive experience during and after the transition, fully communicating the process and offering timely, comprehensive updates and reporting. “A positive experience for our investors is a key component of our business plan,” Alejo said. “We’ve been very pleased with NAV on that front and regularly receive positive investor feedback about the improvements they’ve observed since bringing NAV on board.”

“One of our reservations about NAV was that the majority of the work and resources are outside of the United States, so we were concerned that receiving timely responses or having our investors get lost in the shuffle of a call center would be an issue,” Alejo added. “That has not been the case. The NAV team is very responsive, effectively communicates with us to familiarize themselves with our investors’ needs, and provides consistent follow up. It’s important to note that the improvements resulting from the transition to NAV have also reduced the amount of investor communication overall.”

Anytime, anywhere access to account and fund information had long been a top request from both the Equinox team and investors.

The NAV Portal offers secure web- and app-based access to investors and managers at no additional cost, including unlimited logins, enabling convenient 24/7 access to fund reporting.

“The NAV Portal is a popular resource for both our fund management team, investors, auditors, and tax accountants. The ability to get accurate, up-to-date information on a quick, self-service basis in an invaluable benefit,” Alejo said.