Services

Emerging Manager Platform

Overview

Anchin has a long history of serving the hedge, private equity, real estate and venture capital fund industries. We have assisted many funds through every phase of business – from start-up through winding down. We enjoy helping start-up funds launch and pride ourselves on growing with them through subsequent fund launches and additional capital raises.

Our Focus on Emerging Managers

Launching a new fund can be complex, expensive and extremely competitive. As a start-up fund manager, your attention should be focused on formalizing a compelling investment proposition, building a team, raising capital and meeting return objectives. During the launch process, you may encounter many unfamiliar challenges, including managing risks, navigating complex regulatory environments and compliance considerations. This is where Anchin can make a difference. We understand the issues an emerging manager faces during the funds early stages and can develop tailored solutions to meet your needs.

Our Emerging Manager Platform team will work with you and your fund to identify and help you navigate the complexities of regulations and align your business and tax strategies, while offering traditional services like audit, tax compliance and fund structuring at fees that are commensurate with your fund’s growth.

The Anchin Edge

Having helped numerous funds launch, we understand the complexities and compliance burdens for start-up fund managers. Our team recognizes a one-size-fits-all approach is not practical, nor is this method appropriate when determining fees. Rather, we first listen, understand your needs and formulate a custom approach to best fit your near and long-term goals. We consider our clients, their attorneys, administrators and Anchin all as one team and are committed to quality, planning, responsiveness and the ability to provide industry insight. Our low employee turnover allows for continuity and deepens our understanding of your business. Seamless collaboration and communication between our audit and tax professionals ensures that we anticipate and meet each of our client’s unique and evolving needs.

How Anchin Can Help

  • Advisory services that go beyond traditional tax and audit compliance, including fund modeling, formation and structuring
  • Performance record verification
  • Management Company & General Partnership tax structuring
  • Compensation tax structuring
  • Fund document review including regulatory registration and offshore jurisdiction
  • Referrals to attorneys, fund administrators and other service providers
  • International tax planning
  • Preparation of tax returns and Schedule K-1s
  • Selection of basis of accounting and level of attest service for financial reporting purposes
  • Audit of year-end financial statements
  • Bookkeeping and administration services

Why Partner With Anchin?

  • We have built a distinct culture where our Emerging Manager Platform team think and act like business owners.
  • We understand the complexities and compliance burdens for start-up fund managers and are here to assist you along the way, as often and when needed.
  • We understand your sensitivity to costs in the early stages of your business and view this as an opportunity to grow with you.

Contact Us

Servicesadd

Pre-Launch Services

  • Tax structuring advice
  • Initial fund document review
  • Referrals to attorneys, administrators and other service providers

Post-Launch Services

  • External Financial Statement Audit
  • Tax Compliance (Partnership returns and Schedule K-1s)

Value-Added Services

  • Performance record verification
  • Tax planning across your funds, portfolio companies, joint ventures, advisors and principals
  • Audits of portfolio companies
  • Valuation policy and procedures assistance
  • Reporting and accounting advisory services
  • Process design and improvement
  • State and local tax planning
  • Bookkeeping services*
  • Valuations and appraisals*

* SEC and AICPA independence rules permitting.

Considerations for Starting a Fundadd
Strategic Decisions for Your Fundadd

Early in the process of setting up your fund, you will need to make strategic and structuring decisions that will affect the fund long into its future. Starting your own fund is in many ways not that different from starting any other business. You’re going to need a business plan which, among other things, calculates expected cash flow and establishes your fund’s timeline, including the capital-raising period. A sound and well-thought-out business plan contains growth strategies, a marketing plan and a detailed executive summary with a conclusive section tying all of these areas together.

How Anchin Can Help

Anchin can be a trusted resource as you make these important decisions, providing you with the benefit of our experience in respect to key areas such as:

  • Setting up your fund structure (which is dependent on a number of tax, regulatory and financial considerations, usually driven by the tax needs of the investors)
  • Initial fund document review (while working with you and your legal advisors to address any relevant tax implications and tax reporting requirements)
  • Assisting you with choices relating to basis of accounting (GAAP, Income-Tax), accounting and valuation policies and other reporting and accounting advisory services
  • Investment Management Company and General Partner entity structuring
  • Business strategy and modeling, including waterfall calculations.
Audits of Financial Statementsadd

Investors and creditors are demanding more transparency from investment managers, often in the form of audited financial statements. Despite stakeholders taking comfort in the audited financial statements, we realize that financial statement audits are often a cost driver. As independent auditors, we perform an important role of being a trusted intermediary between fund managers, portfolio companies and stakeholders.

Fund’s management is responsible for the preparation of the fund’s financial statements. Such financial statements can be prepared by either the fund manager’s accounting team or by an outside third party, such as a fund administrator. Emerging managers may not have the resources available to prepare a full set of financial statements and footnote disclosures. Historically, auditors have aided their clients in the preparation of the fund’s year-end financial statements.

Regulators are and continue to increasingly scrutinizing investment managers, and such scrutiny has translated into having a significant impact on the services that auditors of funds can provide to their clients. If the investment manager has registered with the SEC, the preparation of the fund’s financial statements by the auditor is a specifically prohibited, non-audit service pursuant to SEC’s independence rules.

Independence can be compromised, in fact or in appearance, if the auditor is recommending accounting policies, disclosures or drafting financial statements, and then issuing an opinion on their recommendations.

It may be difficult to stay up to date on accounting and financial reporting standards and engaging a fund administrator may not be cost effective at every stage of the fund’s cycle, yet financial statements still have to be delivered to stakeholders. It is critical that whoever prepares the financial statements and footnote disclosures and advises on accounting policies has a robust knowledge of financial reporting standards to advise on requirements.

How Anchin Can Help

  • As part of fund strategic planning, we can advise on the basis and frequency of reporting to determine the most cost-efficient reporting structure.
  • Our skilled and experienced audit professionals get the basics right and aim to add value beyond the financial statements through the business insights we bring to each engagement.
  • Our risk-based audit approach is based on a proven methodology and commitment to independence and ethical behavior.
  • We follow industry trends, issues and insights that may impact the accuracy and completeness of financial statements, driven by industry best practices and technical research.
Tax Servicesadd

Anchin can assist funds at every stage of the startup process and subsequent growth cycle. We can help with designing a tax structure that aligns your business and tax strategies as an important step in launching a fund. The Fund structure you choose is largely determined by multiple variables such as your investor base, investment type and location, as well as your investment strategy. Each one of these variables can have a widespread impact on investors and managers.

How Anchin Can Help

We pride ourselves in planning ahead with common issues Funds may face, including:

  • Tax structuring advice to identify potential domestic and foreign tax issues for the fund, its investors and principals
  • Initial fund document review
  • Consulting and advising on entity classification and other tax elections
  • Tax planning across your funds, portfolio companies, joint ventures, advisors and principals
  • Portfolio company acquisition and exit advice
  • Tax compliance for Fund (Partnership returns and Schedule K-1s)
  • Tax preparation of portfolio company, management company, general partner, and individual returns
  • S. filing requirements for offshore companies and investors in onshore and offshore investment vehicles

When you partner with Anchin, you get people that understand how current tax laws impact the managers and their business.

Performance Record Verificationadd

Raising capital is difficult, and can be even more challenging for emerging managers, as investors are often hesitant to allocate capital to investment managers without a proven and verified performance record.

To alleviate investors’ reluctance, managers can prepare a summary of their historical performance. Choosing the correct report, with various levels of accountant’s assurance available, can be a daunting and difficult task.

Anchin can assist in selecting the most cost-effective report and provide attestation services on your historical performance.

The performance record verification will include an independent accountant’s report, the performance record, whether in total or by asset, or both, along with supporting notes to provide the return calculation methodology and other information that may be relevant to potential investors.

Read: Changes to Accounting Rules Provide Alternatives to Costly Performance Record Verifications

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