BENCHMARK SURVEY: Intermediary Oversight Survey
Over the past several years, the development of intermediary oversight programs has become a focus for fund company management and Boards of Trustees. Fund companies have been rolling out and refining intermediary oversight programs; as the baseline, they and their Boards want to benchmark their own programs in areas such as the status of program implementation, program components (e.g., risk ranking, on-site visits and use of questionnaires), and required personnel support.
Barrington launched the industry’s first focused survey of intermediary oversight programs in 2013. The 2016 edition (our third) commenced in the second quarter of 2016. (As with all Barrington benchmarking surveys, only participating firms receive a copy of the final report; each participant’s report is customized to allow comparisons against randomized representations of the other participants’ anonymous responses.)
A participating fund company can benchmark their approach to intermediary oversight in a highly focused fashion …
The goal of this survey is to benchmark the breadth of and elements included in intermediary oversight programs. We question participants on a variety of topics, including:
- Intermediary agreements and channel AUM;
- Due diligence visits, questionnaires and certificates;
- Relationship service-level meetings versus dedicated due diligence meetings;
- Board reporting topics and frequency;
- Other due diligence activities;
- Invoice management, and
- Dedicated staff involved in oversight activities.
We are adding other hot topics to this year’s survey, including likely impacts of the DOL Fiduciary Rule, offshore oversight programs, Blue Sky, tools supporting the oversight program, and impact of Money Market Reform.
… and can compare their intermediary oversight approach to those of their industry peers.
The survey focuses on the oversight of intermediaries that receive a servicing fee.
Because an oversight program cannot be stagnant, this report allows participants to analyze the supporting elements for their efficacy.
Fund companies are able to learn about the topics of greatest importance to Boards of Trustees.