By Jason Brandt From hedgeweek

Visionary service providers are always attuned to jurisdictions which provide a healthy and active client base within an environment that supports their operations. Establishing a presence at just the right time is as crucial as having a unique product offering, with newcomers competing to set themselves apart from the entrenched, native firms.

For clients, discovering a local provider for their fund administration needs within a trusted centre of excellence is an important tool in their business strategy, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is simply having someone on the ground and accountable.

In September, leading international fund services provider, Maples Fund Services, bolstered its North American presence with the opening of its newest office, located in Boston. This elevated the firm’s accessibility to clients in the area, while simultaneously expanding the opportunities within the entire Eastern Time Zone, where Maples Fund Services also has people on the ground in Montreal, New York and the Cayman Islands, with immediate access to surrounding areas within those regions.

“With offices in numerous cities around the world, we appreciate the need to find locations that offer more accessibility for our clients,” says Jason Brandt, Regional Head of Fund Services, North America, for Maples Fund Services. “Opening in Boston also enables us to touch New York and Connecticut, while continuing to raise our profile in the US. We are confident that these locations make us well situated to take advantage of the growth of North America’s funds market.”

As a progressive firm, Maples Fund Services has been aggressively seeking out opportunities to propagate its business in developing locations, where the need for its sophisticated and diverse service offering is growing. With comprehensive international administration services from front to back office and a proven track-record and expertise in servicing a wide range of fund structures and strategies, Maples Fund Services is regarded for its global operating platform with consistent and rapid response times.

As a location, Boston is the ideal center for that broad range of excellence. Home to several very large and prominent hedge funds, fund of hedge funds and investors, including pension plans, endowments, family offices, private equity firms, foundations and institutional investors, as well as approximately 60 different universities in the region, Boston opens up significant long-term opportunities for Maples Fund Services to diversify its client base and service offering.

In return, the Boston office provides a full-service, real-time offering to both US domestic and offshore funds that prefer to leverage off of a US-based team. This puts relationship managers within client time zones, where client queries are resolved immediately, while still affording the benefits of expertise that Maples Fund Services teams in Montreal, the Cayman Islands, Dublin, Luxembourg, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore can offer.

This is important given the increased due diligence that institutions are now performing on a manager’s service providers. This was a factor for establishing the US office says Brandt, who notes that large allocators have, for some time, been visiting Maples offices. “They want to see how things work, understand our processes and service model and meet with our staff,” he adds.

Brandt feels that it adds quality to the conversation and potentially helps managers raise assets, which in turn will help them grow as a firm. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, where clients can tap into an extensive list of services.

“We benefit from our global network of offices, which allows us to leverage off the Maples group as a whole,” added Brandt. “Our affiliates, Maples Fiduciary Services, a market leader in the provision of fiduciary services to investment funds and structured finance vehicles and Maples and Calder, a prominent, top-tier law firm advising on the laws of the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Ireland, enable us to connect clients with a fuller range of services than they might not otherwise have available to them with our local competitors.”

It is this approach to client servicing that develops long lasting relationships and puts firms like Maples Fund Services in a league of its own.

“Our focus is on creating an environment of value added advantages, whereby our clients get more than they expect and to a higher level than they’re accustomed,” Brandt says. “The client is the central element of success for any organisation and it is critical that business decisions are motivated by the positive impact they will have on our clients.”

Brandt summarises the importance of Maples Fund Services’ first operational presence into the US by concluding:

“Historically, we have been perceived as an offshore fund administrator, but that’s not the case. Our domestic fund services business in Ireland, Luxembourg and Singapore demonstrate a concerted effort to cater to the local needs of our clients. That said, the majority of our investment manager relationships are with US managers, so it was prudent that we establish a physical presence. Boston is just the first step of our planned expansion into the US. We’re here for the long-term to offer our clients a high touch, client-centric service model and look forward to carving out a path across the US as the need dictates.”

Maples Fund Services is a leading independent global fund services provider operating in key onshore and offshore financial centres including Boston, the Cayman Islands, Dubai, Dublin, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Montreal, New York and Singapore.

Working within these key jurisdictions, we provide customised fund services to the diverse and sophisticated needs of our clients and their investors. Our expert teams and leading technologies provide clients with high-quality service and consistent and timely reporting. As a firm recognised internationally by managers and investors for its quality and professionalism, our clients are confident in the integrity and independence of our policies and procedures, and in the ability of our adaptable solutions to address their ever-changing needs.

Jason Brandt is the Regional Head of Fund Services for the Americas for Maples Fund Services. He has over 20 years of experience in the financial services sector with 16 years specifically in the hedge fund and private equity industry.

For more on this story go to: http://www.hedgeweek.com/2014/10/24/211910/maples-fund-services-establishes-boston-footprint