A Deeper Dive into Investment Funds: Understanding the Ecosystem, Regulatory Landscape and Accounting Treatment

Description

Singapore’s asset and wealth management industry has been growing at 10-12% p.a. over the past decade. The number of funds and fund/wealth managers have grown five times in the past decade too. It is now one of the major components of the financial services industry, employing more than 15,000 professionals and growing.

The practical workshop will delve into the industry’s specifics, terminologies, technical details of the industry, and gives a comprehensive overview for those who would like to broaden and deepen their knowledge on the investment funds industry.

Programme Outline

Basics of fund structuring and jurisdiction selection

• Understanding the building blocks of an investment fund
• Key factors that drive a decision to set up a fund in relevant jurisdictions
• Basic types of fund structures
• Differentiations based on legal entity types
• Differentiations based on investment strategy
• Differentiations based on investor types and marketing
• Differentiation based on regulatory status
• Basic outline of funds – standalone, master/feeder, umbrella funds, parallel funds etc.

Relationship of funds with their service providers

• Understanding various actors and the eco-system of investment funds and their competencies
• Understanding the role played by each of these service providers

Funds landscape in Singapore and the regulatory framework

• Understanding the regulatory framework for investment funds in Singapore – Authorized, Restricted, Exempt
• Definition of various investor types in Singapore
• Fund Management regime in Singapore
• Exemption from fund management – Single family offices, real estate funds etc.
• Types of fund structures available for sale in Singapore and their comparatives – Unit Trusts, Limited
• Partnerships, Sg Co, VCC

Cross border distribution of investment funds – UCITS/AIFMD

• Understanding UCITS and how they operate
• Understanding AIFMD regime and its application in Singapore.
• Basics of cross border funds regime in APAC and their current status

Industry architecture and functions of various service providers

• Understanding the roles of various eco-system players of a fund
• Roles played by Trustees, Custodians, Fund administrators, Transfer agents, Directors, Fund Managers, Investment Advisors
• Understanding the basic competency requirements for each of the above roles
• Roles played by various members of a fund manager – Front office, Product development, investor relations, middle office, back office, research, portfolio management.
• Understanding the basic competency requirements for each of the above roles

Open-ended funds

• Demographic and construct of an open-ended fund
• Lifecycle of an open-ended fund (public/private)
• Understanding the various components of fund documents
• Introduction to various investment strategies of public mutual funds (retail type products)
• Fee structures of public mutual funds
• Management fee calculations
• Performance fee calculations
• Net Asset Value calculation mechanics (GAV/NAV/ Accounting and dealing NAV)
• Total return and ratios typically used to assess performance of mutual funds
• Introduction to various investment strategies of private funds (hedge funds type products)
• Fee structures of private funds
• Management fee calculations
• Performance fee calculations (hurdle rates, high water marks)
• Difference between equalization and series accounting
• Net Asset Value calculation mechanics
• Performance calculation of a typical private funds

Closed-ended funds

• Demographic and construct of a closed-ended fund
• Life Cycle of a closed-ended fund (PE/RE)
• Understanding the various terminology of LP documents
• Introduction to various types of private equity strategies
• Introduction to various types of real estate fund strategies
• Fee structures of closed-ended funds
• Management fees
• Carried Interest (components, claw-back, waterfalls - American/European)
• Performance measurement of closed-ended funds – IRR, XIRR, TVPI, RVPI, DPI
• Net Asset Value calculation mechanics

What could go wrong with a fund and operations

• Various risks and parameters of a fund’s lifecycle
• Understanding the root causes of a few fraud cases (Phantom funds, Ponzi Schemes, Intentional mis-valuations, preferential treatments, misrepresentation, rogue trades)
• Various mitigating factors for risks identified

Accounting technical topics relevant to investment funds

• Debt/Equity classification of financial instruments and implications of such investment fund reporting
• Consolidation concepts and exemptions from consolidation
• IFRS 9 and various tests of classification
• Currency classification of funds (functional and reporting)

This workshop qualifies for 2.0 CPE hours in Financial and Sustainability Reporting Standards and Pronouncements (Category 1) and 5.0 CPE hours (Other Relevant Expertise).

What you will learn

• A comprehensive workshop that compresses practical and relevant knowledge for direct application in real life
• Be trained by an industry stalwart who has over two and half decades of experience across the globe
• Learn practical and relevant application of the principles that will equip you to be industry ready

Target Audience

• Accountants and Auditors who would like to have a practical knowledge in fund administration
• Treasury and payment processing team considering flip to fund services
• Accountants/ops staff in non-financial sector exploring the asset and wealth management sector
• Fund administrators
• Accounting & audit firms expanding into the wealth and asset management sector
• Anyone who would like to broaden and deepen their knowledge on the investment funds industry

Expert Speaker

Armin Choksey

Armin has over 24 years of asset management industry experience starting off with audits of investment funds under US and International auditing standards, along with knowledge of Indian, Hong Kong, Canadian, US, Luxembourg, and International Financial Reporting Standards relevant to the fund industry.

Armin was the project leader of a new legal entity-type legislation in Singapore – Singapore Variable Capital Company (VCC). He was the main author of the white paper to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to introduce the "Open-ended Investment Company" law in Singapore. This white paper led to a conducted detailed study on the feasibility of introducing such a legal entity form in Singapore.

He has also lectured at NUS’ CAMRI (guest lecture) Wealth Management Institute and WMI/ NTU’s Masters in Asset and Wealth Management.