Thinking about switching your fund administrator? What you need to know

“Switching? It’s just too complicated.” We hear it constantly.

A fund manager knows the service isn’t good enough. The NAVs are late. The errors keep creeping in. Every simple request turns into a week of chasing. And yet, when the idea of moving administrators comes up, the shutters come down.

“Is it really worth the disruption?”

“What do I tell my LPs?”

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Many managers tolerate poor service because moving a live fund feels too disruptive.

Migration is complex, but with the right approach it can be managed successfully. Having overseen transitions from more than 18 administrators, we’ve seen where migrations typically fail and how to avoid those pitfalls.

Why is it so complex?

The mistake most make is treating a switch like a procurement exercise. You review capabilities, systems, team structure, reporting. You pick the “right” provider.

A fund transition is not a clean handover. It’s an invasive process that forces every weakness, shortcut and historical inconsistency to the surface.

You’re not moving a tidy, self-contained dataset, you’re pulling apart a living structure that has evolved over years. And here’s the uncomfortable part: the more frustrated you are with your outgoing administrator, the more likely it is that what sits beneath is messy, incomplete or wrong.

Where the problems hide

KYC is usually the first flashpoint. A new administrator, wary of liability, will often push for a full re-KYC of every investor. Suddenly your LPs, who assumed this was a quiet internal change, are being asked for documents they’ve already provided, sometimes more than once. Handled badly, this is where goodwill evaporates. Handled well, it’s a non-event.

Then come the deeper issues. Missing regulatory filings, overlooked FATCA or CRS obligations, or funds operating under incorrect regulatory assumptions.

Board meetings that were held informally and never properly recorded or, occasionally, never held at all. None of this shows up until someone is finally forced to rebuild the record from the ground up.

And then there’s the accounting. This is often the most sensitive of all. Waterfalls that don’t quite align with the LPA. Allocations applied inconsistently over the years. Historical calculations that nobody can fully explain. Correcting these isn’t just a technical exercise – it can be commercially and reputationally sensitive, especially when it touches investor returns.

How we do it

The success of a migration depends on execution as much as provider selection.

That’s what SWITCHpact is built for.

Rather than treating a migration as a single handover, we break it into structured workstreams that run in parallel, under the central oversight of a director. A dedicated migration team takes ownership of the move from day one, while your existing service team keeps the fund running. PCAPs keep being produced. Reporting keeps going out. Regulatory obligations stay on track. The fund never stops.

1. On KYC, we take a specialist-led approach rather than a tick-box one, focused on using what already exists and minimising the burden on your LPs.
2. On regulation and records, we review documentation thoroughly, engage directly with regulators and registries, and close gaps properly rather than papering over them.
3. On accounting, we transfer and validate financial data, identifying any historical discrepancies early so they can be resolved through proper governance.

And throughout, your investors experience a managed, professional process: clear communications, tailored document portals, and real-time visibility into where things stand.

The result is simple to describe, even if the work behind it isn’t, and nothing falls through the gaps.

The part that nobody tells you

A migration done poorly amplifies the very problems it was meant to solve.

A well-managed migration does more than improve service levels. It provides an opportunity to identify and resolve historical issues, strengthen controls and rebuild confidence in the fund’s operational framework.

You come out the other side not just with a better administrator, but with a cleaner, more defensible, more investable structure.

One Managing Partner who moved to us captured the outcome well:

“After switching to HIGHVERN, we went from feeling like a small client at a large firm to a genuinely valued partner. The impact on our business and our LPs has been significant.”

Switching, in other words, isn’t only a forward-looking decision. Done right, it’s one of the most valuable pieces of housekeeping a fund can do.

HIGHVERN’s expert-led, technology-enabled, structured approach to fund migration manages complexity end-to-end, delivering efficient, low-risk, and fully managed transitions.

If switching has crossed your mind, find out more here: SWITCHpact | Fund Migration by HIGHVERN